In Dublin, the English journalist Robert Fisk has died at the age of 74, meldt The Irish Times. He was known, among other things, for interviewing terrorist leader Osama bin Laden three times, as one of the few Western journalists.
In the early 1970s, Fisk reported on the battle in Northern Ireland as a correspondent for the London Times. Since 1976 he has been stationed in Beirut. There he worked for various British media, since 1989 for The Independent.
Fluent Arabic, Fisk had accesses that many other Western journalists did not have. He covered many wars in the Middle East, as well as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Hotel room
He did not endear himself to everyone. For example, he accused other correspondents in the First Gulf War of reporting only from their hotel room.
In recent years, Fisk has written extensively about the Syrian Civil War, in a way that has led him to accuse him of taking sides with the Syrian government. For example, he spoke to many people who denied that a high-profile attack on Douma in 2018 was a poison gas attack.
“A true Muslim”
In the 1990s, Fisk interviewed Osama bin Laden three times. In one of those conversations, Fisk noticed that the terrorist leader was trying to convert him. Bin Laden said Fisk was a spiritual person, “a true Muslim.” When Fisk objected that he was a journalist trying to write down the truth, bin Laden is said to have replied, “If you tell the truth, you are a good Muslim.”
Years later, in 2004, bin Laden described Fisk in a video message as “a neutral journalist.” Fisk condemned the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US as a “heinous crime against humanity,” but also opposed President Bush’s response to Islamic countries.
Last Friday, Fisk became unwell, possibly as a result of a heart attack. He is said to have intended to return to the Middle East, but died in a hospital in Dublin.
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