Robert Fisk, veteran foreign correspondent, dies at 74
Fearless, bespectacled and cheerful personality bristling with energy, Robert Fisk was often the first reporter to arrive at the scene of a story. He shunned email, smart phones and social media till the end, and strongly believed in the power of street reporting
BEIRUT: Veteran British journalist Robert Fisk, one of the best-known Middle East correspondents who spent his career reporting from the troubled region and won accolades for challenging mainstream narratives has died after a short illness, his employer said Monday. He was 74.
Fisk, whose reporting often sparked controversy, died Sunday at a hospital in Dublin, shortly after he was taken there after falling ill at his home in the Irish capital. The London Independent, where he had worked since 1989, described him as the most celebrated journalist of his era.
“Fearless, uncompromising, determined and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs, Robert Fisk was the greatest journalist of his generation,” said Christian Broughton, managing director of the newspaper.
“The fire he lit at The Independent will burn on,” he said.
Born in Kent, in the United Kingdom, Fisk began his career on Fleet Street at the Sunday Express. He went on to work for The Times, where he was based in Northern Ireland, Portugal and the Middle East. He moved to Beirut in 1976, a year after the country’s civil war broke out, and continued to work and live from an apartment located on the Lebanese capital’s famed Mediterranean corniche until his death.
