Fisk, Robert (1946–)

Robert Fisk is a British journalist, bestselling author, and foreign correspondent, formerly of The Times of London and currently covering the Middle East for The Independent. He is one of Britain's best-known and most respected journalists and has extensive experience covering various conflicts throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East. Over the past 3 decades he has reported on Portugal's Carnation Revolution, the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, the Lebanese civil war, the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf War, the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States and their repercussions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the current American invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Fisk's collected notes and experience served as the basis for several books on these topics, including Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War of 1990, on Lebanon, and most recently and comprehensively, The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East from 2005, covering many of the above-listed conflicts and several others.

Fisk has become famous both for the quality of his writing and the incredible access he is able to gain in often very dangerous situations (he speaks fluent Arabic and is one of few Western journalists to report “unembedded” from Iraq), as well as the strong positions he holds on the conflicts he covers. He is well known for his critical take on Western intervention in the Middle East and the often terrible toll this exacts on the people living there, as well as the hypocrisy that often accompanies it; he was one of few reporters to compare the very similar rhetoric on Iraq provided by the British invaders in 1920 and the American occupiers in 2003. He resigned from The Times in 1988 over its refusal to print his highly critical account of the shooting down of Iranian Air Flight 655 by the American guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes.

Fisk believes the proper role of journalism is to hold centers of power accountable through exposing the truth to the public. While denying that the journalist's role is to be completely unbiased, his integrity and excellence are well known; he is the world's most decorated journalist (he has won the British Press Awards International Journalist of the Year award seven times) and is widely regarded as an honest reporter. Noam Chomsky has called him the world's best journalist, and even Osama bin Laden (whom Fisk has interviewed on three occasions) describes him as neutral.