Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk (born July 12, 1946, Maidstone, Kent, England—died October 30, 2020, Dublin, Ireland) was a British journalist and best-selling author known for his coverage of the Middle East.

Fisk earned a B.A. in English literature at Lancaster University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in political science from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1985. He began his journalism career in 1972 as the Belfast correspondent of The Times of London, covering political turmoil in Northern Ireland. As the paper’s Middle East correspondent from 1976 to 1987 he again reported on violent and tumultuous political events, such as the Lebanese civil war (1975–90), the Iranian Revolution (1978–79), and the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88). In 1989 Fisk moved to The Independent, where he continued to cover the Middle East from Beirut. He was known for his passionate reporting, his ability to secure access to frequently inaccessible people and places, and his willingness to brave danger to further his work. He was one of the few Western reporters to have interviewed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a feat he accomplished three times during the 1990s. He also provided extensive coverage of the Persian Gulf War (1990–91), the Afghanistan War (2001–14), and the Iraq War (2003–11), priding himself on his eyewitness accounts while criticizing what he called the “hotel journalism” of some of his colleagues, which often relied heavily on official sources.

Fisk’s reporting and commentary stirred controversy. His detractors questioned his journalistic impartiality, citing his opposition to the Iraq War and his criticism of U.S. and Israeli policies. His supporters, on the other hand, contended that most Western journalists are blindly supportive of the United States and Israel and that Fisk’s work in comparison is almost uniquely objective and unbiased.

Fisk continued to cover the Middle East, and he notably reported on the Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War. He received numerous awards during his career, including the British Press Awards International Journalist of the Year and Foreign Reporter of the Year. His books included The Point of No Return: The Strike Which Broke the British in Ulster (1975), In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939–1945 (1983), Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (2001), The Great War for Civilisation—the Conquest of the Middle East (2005), and The Age of the Warrior: Selected Essays (2008). Fisk’s work was profiled in the documentary This Is Not a Movie (2019).