Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. During his career he developed strong views, and was especially critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. He was one of the first to visit the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon as well as the Hama Massacre in Syria.

About Robert Fisk in brief

Summary Robert FiskRobert Fisk was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. During his career he developed strong views, and was especially critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. His stance earned him praise from many commentators, but was condemned by others. 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. Fluent in Arabic, he was among the few Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, which he did three times between 1993 and 1997. Fisk lived in Beirut from 1976, remaining throughout the Lebanese Civil War. He was one of the first to visit the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon as well as the Hama Massacre in Syria. His book, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, was published in 1990. He also reported on the Soviet–Afghan War, the Persian Gulf War, Kosovo and the Bosnian War. During the early stages of the conflict for the United States and their allies in Afghanistan, Fisk suffered a partial but permanent hearing loss as a result of being close to Iraqi heavy artillery. He received many British and international journalism awards, including the Press Awards Foreign Reporter of the Year seven times. The New York Times described Fisk as ‘probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain’ The Economist referred to him as ‘one of the most influential correspondents in the Mideast since the second world war’ Fisk died in a car crash in Dublin on September 25, 2013.

He is survived by his wife, two children and a step-granddaughter, and two step-great-grandchildren. He leaves behind a wife, a daughter and a son, both of whom are still living in the UK, and a daughter, a son-in-law, who lives in the US. The Fisk family are now living in a retirement home in New York. The last of the Fisk brothers to die was William Fisk, who served in the First World War and was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in 1969. The family are still in contact with Bill Fisk and his wife Peggy, who was a magistrate in Maidstone, Kent, in the 1970s and 1980s. The couple have a son and two daughters who live in London and New York, and also have a daughter who is studying at the University of California, Los Angeles. The father was a member of the Maidstone Borough Council and was a Borough Treasurer at Maidstone Corporation. The mother was an amateur painter who in later years became a Maidstone magistrate. The son was a keen amateur golfer and a keen golfer as well. He had a PhD in Political Science from Trinity College Dublin in 1983; the title of his doctoral thesis was \”A Condition of Limited Warfare: Éire’s Neutrality and the Relationship between Dublin, Belfast and London, 1939–1945\”.