Celebrated war correspondent Robert Fisk is no more!

By M M Zuhair

Veteran journalist, the celebrated British war correspondent Robert Fisk is no more. A man whose columns and reports from the war zones were widely read and readily accepted, passed away on 30th October 2020, at the age of 74, in a hospital in Dublin, Ireland, at a time when the world was engrossed in the US presidential elections.

This piece is penned in appreciation of this ‘vigilante’ sort of scribe, for frisking the likes of us to see the victims’ side of the numerous wars that were covered at tremendous personal risk by this committed correspondent, whose reports we will no longer see. The ‘New York Times’ described Fisk as “probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain”.

Leer en Espanol, staffer at the UK’s ‘The Independent’ wrote: “Fisk was renowned for his courage in questioning official narratives from governments and publishing what he uncovered in frequently brilliant prose.” Christian Broughton, Managing Director of the ‘The Independent’ described Fisk as, “Fearless, uncompromising, determined and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs. Robert Fisk was the greatest journalist of his generation. The fire he lit at ‘The Independent’ will burn on”.

Robert Fisk’s reporting from major conflict zones showed he was not one of those ‘embedded’ with the forces telling the world what the forces probably wanted journalists to tell. He did not indulge in what he called ‘hotel journalism’ either, reporting from hotel rooms without risking a visit to the attack site. His reports were testimony to his courage of visiting invariably deadly sites often under continuous attacks and reporting what he saw and what he heard from the victims.

Fisk was at times criticised for portraying the victims’ side as not being ‘independent’. Such criticisms though not entirely unfair also came from persons who did not dare the risks that Fisk never hesitated to take. The criticisms however invariably recognised that there was always a victim’s side and obviously an attacker’s side. Fisk saw the aggressor’s excuses for war, happening to be very well reported, while the war itself was severely under-reported.

By reporting from the perspectives of the victims, Fisk probably tried to correct an imbalance that the world of western journalism had created. He was indeed a heroic independent journalist. This is evident from the exclusive quality of the reports filed by Fisk from 1989 for ‘The Independent’, which were picked up by the electronic media in most parts of the world and I for one never wanted to miss!

Fisk knew Arabic. He covered the wars in Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Iran-Iraq conflict, wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the US invasion of Afghanistan, the US invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring and the wars in Syria. He was physically present at the receiving end of the onslaughts.

He was reportedly the first Western journalist to visit the bombed Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shattila in Lebanon. He filed heart-rendering reports of what he saw of the Israeli massacre of refugees. Wikipedia in its first paragraph on Robert Fisk said that Fisk was “especially critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle-East and the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians”.

Sean O’ Grady, an Associate Editor at ‘The Independent’, a day after Fisk’s death, said, “For anyone at The Independent or indeed in journalism anywhere, Robert Fisk was a hero… When Fisk nailed NATO for killing civilians during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, he took the trouble to go and find the remains of the missiles and discovered charred componentry that could be traced back to the American manufacturers. The Indy’s subs gave him a great headline for the story too: ‘The atrocity is still a mystery to NATO. Perhaps I can help…’. That was smart journalism, and it got him an award, one of very many…. As a personal memory too I admired his championing of the cause of the Armenian people, victims of the first Holocaust, as Fisk insisted it be capitalised.”

Fisk worked at the powerful media giant Rupert Murdoch’s ‘The Times’, briefly but soon walked out as he thought his reports were being tailored to suit Murdoch’s taste! He moved onto ‘The Independent’ in 1989 from where he served the world for over 30 years with first hand reports that exposed the horrors of war, much to the dislike of many in the Western war lobbies. The US and NATO graciously gave Fisk enough wars to report about. For more on wars by the present writer, you may read The Island 14/11/2020, “Trump quotes President Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell speech: Nothing has been done to break the US military from the arms industrial complex”. True to form he was an independent journalist for which he is widely respected across the world.

I had the privilege of meeting him once in Tehran on 30th August 2012 at the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Iran. It was attended by over 20 presidents, a number of prime ministers, four dozen foreign ministers and three kings. He was there to cover it. President Mahinda Rajapaksa represented Sri Lanka and I was there as my country’s Ambassador. I spotted Fisk in the media block. As much as his name, his face was also globally known. I had seen Robert Fisk in action via the electronic media in war zones that seemed to me then ‘suicidal’ for anyone to be in.

From where I was, I had already crossed over to the media block, shook hands and said I was a regular follower of his reports in the media and conveyed my appreciation for his bold reporting from the war zones. After the preliminaries, he asked me whether I had read his interviews of Osama bin Laden. I said yes; you had wanted to know more from Bin Laden about how the US armed this millionaire Saudi construction contractor to help Afghans to throw out the Soviet ‘invaders’ from Afghanistan.

I said, in the Western media Bin Laden was then a heroic freedom fighter! Yes – freedom fighter. But when Bin Laden, after 9/11 allegedly turned the Afghans against the invading American forces, how did he become a terrorist? He understood my query. Fisk was blunt. He said Robert Fisk, no! Rupert Murdoch, yes! I couldn’t figure out what Fisk was trying to say. He went on, ‘that man defines’, to the world! Depends on which side the fighter is! He then probed into Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa. After a while, he said, ‘Fisk has to file a report’ about (then Egyptian President) Morsi handing over NAM presidency to Ahmadinejad at the leaders meeting and he needed to pick up more and moved away.

This chat, later on, was however not in my mind. But I recalled this with some nostalgia when I read a recent media report by Borzou Daragahi “… the dangers of giving one family with an extremist agenda so much power…” where he referred to former Australian defense and energy secretary Paul Barratt’s response to a cheeky tweet. The query was why the United States, United Kingdom and Australia all found themselves “with lunatics and/or shysters” at the helm. Barratt tweeted, “Rupert Murdoch”!

The world owes much to Robert Fisk, this extraordinary journalist. He had a doctorate in political science earned in 1983. He could have lectured in a university. He could have lived a life of ease and comfort. Instead he roamed amidst falling missiles and firing ones! He lived on the threshold of death for most parts of his life uncovering the horrors of man-made wars and the miseries from inhuman massacres. He deserves the universal appreciation of all those who desire peace for mankind.

(The writer can be reached at mm_zuhair@yahoo.com).