Robert Fisk was an English writer and journalist.
37 Facts About Robert Fisk
2.
Robert Fisk was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians.
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Robert Fisk's stance earned him praise from many commentators, but was condemned by others.
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Robert Fisk began his journalistic career at the Newcastle Chronicle and then the Sunday Express.
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Books by Robert Fisk include The Point of No Return, In Time of War, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, and Syria: Descent Into the Abyss.
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Robert Fisk was an only child, born in Maidstone, Kent, to William and Peggy Robert Fisk.
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Robert Fisk's mother, Peggy Fisk, was an amateur painter who in later years became a Maidstone magistrate.
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Robert Fisk worked on the Sunday Express diary column before a disagreement with the editor, John Junor, prompted a move to The Times.
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From 1972 to 1975, at the height of the Troubles, Robert Fisk was The Times Belfast correspondent, before being posted to Portugal following the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
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Robert Fisk lived in Beirut from 1976, remaining throughout the Lebanese Civil War.
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Robert Fisk was one of the first Western journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as well as the Hama Massacre in Syria.
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Robert Fisk criticised other journalists based in Iraq for what he calls their "hotel journalism": reporting from one's hotel room without interviews or first-hand experience of events.
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Robert Fisk argued that such a debate had hitherto been avoided "because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel".
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In 2007, Robert Fisk expressed personal doubts about the official historical record of the attacks.
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Robert Fisk had earlier addressed similar concerns in a speech at Sydney University in 2006.
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Robert Fisk's reporting drew criticism for having relied on government supplied contacts, with Asser Khattab writing in Raseef22 that the doctor quoted by Robert Fisk "had been introduced to him by officials in the Syrian government and army".
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Richard Spencer and Catherine Philp in The Times wrote that journalists had been taken to Douma on a government-organised trip while international investigators were forced to remain in Damascus, and that the doctor interviewed by Robert Fisk admitted to not having been to the hospital where the victims were taken.
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The Snopes website said other reporters on the same trip as Robert Fisk had interviewed locals who said they had inhaled toxic gas.
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Robert Fisk returned to the subject of the Douma attacks in early January 2020, in an article concerning internal disagreements within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons recorded in documents released by WikiLeaks.
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Robert Fisk was interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs in 2006.
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Robert Fisk featured in the 2016 documentary film notes to eternity by New Zealand filmmaker Sarah Cordery, along with Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and Sara Roy.
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Robert Fisk was profiled in Yung Chang's 2019 documentary film This Is Not a Movie.
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Robert Fisk was known for his criticism of the foreign policy of the United States, particularly the country's involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
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Robert Fisk was consistently critical of Israel, labelling some of the country's actions against Palestinians as "war crimes".
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The Times newspaper, in its November 2020 obituary of Robert Fisk, said that he had developed a "visceral dislike of the Israeli government and its allies" following his coverage of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, alleging that this had made Robert Fisk biased and "unable to provide a dispassionate account of events and their context".
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David Pryce-Jones, writing in The Spectator in 2003, said that Robert Fisk was guilty of "hysteria and distortion" in his coverage of Middle Eastern topics.
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The BBC's Jeremy Bowen praised him following his death and noted the controversy Robert Fisk drew for his "sharp criticism of the US and Israel, and of Western foreign policy".
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Robert Fisk dismissed the controversy related to his reporting in Syria, saying that he was "writing only what he saw and heard".
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Robert Fisk said that journalism must "challenge authority, all authority, especially so when governments and politicians take us to war".
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Robert Fisk wrote extensively about the Armenian genocide of 1915 and supported moves to persuade the Turkish Government to acknowledge it.
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Robert Fisk fought for his country and then, unafraid, he threw his poppy away.
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On 30 October 2020, Robert Fisk died aged 74 at St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, after a suspected stroke.
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Robert Fisk went against the grain and told the truth, spectacularly.
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Robert Fisk received the British Press Awards' International Journalist of the Year seven times, and twice won its "Reporter of the Year" award.
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Robert Fisk 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.
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Robert Fisk produced a three-part series titled From Beirut To Bosnia in 1993 which Robert Fisk said was an attempt "to find out why an increasing number of Muslims had come to hate the West".
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Robert Fisk said that the Discovery Channel did not show a repeat of the films, after initially showing them in full, due to a letter campaign launched by pro-Israel groups such as CAMERA.