员罗柏·费斯克

Robert William Fisk (12 July 1946 – 30 October 2020) was an English writer and journalist. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians.

As an international correspondent, he covered the civil wars in Lebanon, Algeria, and Syria, the Iran–Iraq conflict, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Islamic revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, and the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. An Arabic speaker, he was among the few Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, which he did three times between 1993 and 1997.

Fisk began his journalistic career at the Newcastle Chronicle and then the Sunday Express. From there, he went to work for The Times as a correspondent in Northern Ireland, Portugal, and the Middle East; in the last role, he based himself in Beirut intermittently from 1976. After 1989, he worked for The Independent. Fisk received many British and international journalism awards, including the Press Awards Foreign Reporter of the Year seven times.

Fisk's books include The Point of No Return (1975), In Time of War (1985), Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (1990), The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (2005), and Syria: Descent Into the Abyss (2015).

The noun fisking (meaning a point-by-point rebuttal) and the related verb fisk were named after him.

Early life and education

Fisk was an only child, born in Maidstone, Kent, to William and Peggy Fisk. His father was Borough Treasurer at Maidstone Corporation and had fought in the First World War. His mother was an amateur painter who in later years became a Maidstone magistrate. At the end of the war Bill Fisk was punished for disobeying an order to execute another soldier;……

Career

Newspaper correspondent

Fisk worked on the Sunday Express diary column before a disagreement with the editor, John Junor, prompted a move to The Times. From 1972 to 1975, at the height of the Troubles, Fisk was the Times Belfast correspondent, before being posted to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution in 1974. He then was appointed Middle East correspondent (1976–1987).……

War reporting

Fisk lived in Beirut from 1976, remaining throughout the Lebanese Civil War.……

Views

Stances and reception

Fisk was known for his criticism of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the country's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He was consistently critical of Israel, calling some of its actions against Palestinians war crimes. One of his beliefs was that he should report events from the point of view of the victim rather than those in authority.……

Personal life

Fisk married American-born journalist Lara Marlowe in 1994. They divorced in 2006. At the time of his death, he was married to Nelofer Pazira, an Afghan-Canadian journalist, author and human rights activist.

Death

On 30 October 2020, Fisk died aged 74 at St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, after a suspected stroke. Due to the Irish government's COVID-19 restrictions, his funeral was held privately.

Irish president Michael D. Higgins said, "with his passing the world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators".……

Memoir

Love in a Time of War, a memoir by Fisk's first wife, Lara Marlowe, was published in 2021. It covers the years from 1988 to 2003, the period Fisk and Marlowe worked together.

Awards, honours and degrees

Fisk received the British Press Awards' International Journalist of the Year seven times, and twice won its "Reporter of the Year" award. He also received Amnesty International UK Media Awards in 1992 for his report "The Other Side of the Hostage Saga", in 1998 for his reports from Algeria and again in 2000 for his articles on the NATO air campaign against the FRY in 1999.