Robert Fisk has won more prestigious prizes than any other journalist – collecting dozens of awards – and he did not display them in his Irish home, but wisely kept them away.

Although not a braggart, he established himself as one of the best British foreign correspondents of every decade since the 1970s. While there were many other good journalists, he distinguished himself by his courage, insight, and excellent writing skills. The Independent.

He was fearless in telling the truth to the authorities and repeatedly entering great danger places. He had a house near Dublin and another house in Beirut, where he was often abducted by reporters.

Born in Midstone, Kent in 1946, Fisk wanted to become a film critic as a schoolboy, saying to an interviewer last year, “I was fascinated by film because it seems to have unstoppable power to convince.” The film, along with the character of Huntley Haverstock, the protagonist of Hitchcock’s wartime film, will influence his career choice. Foreign correspondent Inspires a young fisk.

He started his career Sunday ExpressHe described himself as a Northern Ireland correspondent in Belfast in the 1970s Times In 1972. It was a city where many news organizations were inclined to repeat the often dubious official official versions of many controversial events. But Fisk checked everything and checked twice, and his refusal to simply accept what the authorities were claiming caused great annoyance to the British government and army.

Fisk’s reporting philosophy, which will last for the rest of his career, is summed up in a quote he gave decades later: “You have to follow every source you can.” He was always ready with a notebook in hand. “I was surprised to see a war being reported,” he said of his time reporting in Belfast. “I always call Northern Ireland a war, not a problem.”

Before becoming a Middle East correspondent in 1976, Fish reported from Portugal. In a sense he never left Ireland. He wrote two books about it and bought a beautiful house overlooking the sea in Dalki, south of Dublin. Later, after living in Beirut for years, he added Middle Eastern touches to his home.

Fisk was fascinated by the insecurity and repeated violence in the Middle East. He will report on the civil wars in Lebanon and Algeria, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Fisk’s International Reporter of the Year, who won the Press Award in 1979, was sent away from the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, and the awards will never go away.

Fisk was one of the first reporters to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, where more than a thousand people were killed in 1982. This is a situation that has fabricated him as a reporter. “The Israelis watched and did nothing,” he wrote. I entered the camps with two colleagues before the murderers had completed their war crimes. I hid with an American reporter next to a newly executed young woman in the yard of a cottage. I climbed on top of the pile of corpses. That evening, I burned because of the smell of my clothes rotting. ”

He would later say of the massacre: “I remember thinking: If these people have souls, they want me to be there. For that reason I thought they would consider me a friend. So I did not panic. I was afraid they would be killed, but it was [manifested itself in] Anger. ”

He won another International Reporter of the Year award for that dispatch. The judges described it as “destroying” its descriptive power. [and] Its overall effect is almost unbearable. ” The judges added that his other works from the Middle East “revealed the same determination to find the truth and the same sensitivity to human suffering during the war.” Next year, he will win the Fisk Overall Reporter of the Year award for his work covering the Lebanese civil war.

Fisk earned a BA from the University of Lancaster in the late 1960s and a PhD in political science from Trinity College Dublin in the 1980s. He received his doctoral dissertation on Ireland’s neutrality during World War II.

Fisk will go Times He later wrote about his disregard for the title, Rupert Murdoch, following a dispute over how one of his stories was handled in 1989. He joined The Independent, He will live there for the rest of his life – this period includes two weddings and countless trips around the world.

He became famous for his willingness and writing to enter dangerous areas. He made no secret of his personal views – his report on the Armenian Genocide was an incident. He often writes and speaks of sympathy for the people he saw being killed at the same time as sharply criticizing the US and Israel. His writing may be controversial – later reported on Syria – sometimes cruel. Fisk’s style means that he chose not only his rivals, but also many loyal readers.

At The IndependentFisk has won the Press Reporter of the Year Award twice, in 1994 and 1995, for sending from Bosnia and Algeria – as well as several Amnesty International Media Awards and the 1999 Orwell Prize.

A series of interviews with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will change Fisk’s name globally. At the first meeting in 1993, Fishtan was interviewed three times as “every inch of the Mujahideen legend is a mountain warrior.” In 1996 and 1997, more meetings were held with the man who had become the FBI’s most wanted terrorist. Fisk can no doubt say that the man who became synonymous with the 9/11 attacks, bin Laden’s personal papers were released in 2016 by the US.

He sought media attention in an outdated letter written by bin Laden about the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He recommended that his lieutenants contact CBS, other unnamed American networks, and Al Jazeera’s Islamabad bureau chief.

The so-called war on terror in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks will mark his last days as a writer. He was deported from Baghdad in 2003 when the UK government banned the US-led bombing of Iraq. It has always been clear that governments or leaders who seek war or solve suffering are insulted. This will include his coverage of the 2011 Arab uprisings and the war in Syria.

In addition to his hundreds – or thousands – of newspapers, he immersed himself in the history, politics and culture of the Middle East and produced numerous books. His books are also included The Point of No Return: The strike that crushed the British at Ulster (1975), Piti the Nation: Lebanon at War (2001), The Great War for Civilization Occupation of the Middle Middle East (2005), and The Age of Warrior: Selected Essays (2008).

When I asked him at his Irish home, as he was surrounded by manuscripts that we were about to hand over to the publisher, as he was about to lose weight and take things easy, he laughed and said, “I only have two bigger books. “I do not believe these are ever complete.

Another important part of his life developed when he was pressured to discuss the Middle East in many countries. When he started doing so, the noise of the ticket was so great that Fisk often attracted more than a thousand spectators. An event in Dublin, hosted by his journalist friend Conor O’Callaghan, was attended by 1,200 people. Fisk’s work was also described in the 2019 documentary This is not a movie.

It was the pull of a man who had spent decades trying to help readers understand the world – and its injustices – as best they could.

Robert Fisk is survived by his wife, filmmaker and human rights activist Nelofer Pasira

Robert Fisk was born on July 12, 1946 and died on October 30, 2020