{"id":173015,"date":"2020-11-23T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T12:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=173015"},"modified":"2020-11-17T07:06:18","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T07:06:18","slug":"robert-fisk-of-the-independent-has-died-and-journalism-is-poorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/11\/robert-fisk-of-the-independent-has-died-and-journalism-is-poorer\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Fisk of The Independent Has Died and Journalism Is Poorer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tony Barber wrote an obituary in the Financial Times<\/em> on November 6th:<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert Fisk, who has died at the age of 74, was one of his generation\u2019s best-known foreign correspondents, admired for his indomitable courage and inimitable writing skills, but sometimes criticised for a lack of objectivity and exaggeration in his reports. His reputation rested primarily on his frontline coverage of wars and civil conflict in the Middle East and Islamic world.\u00a0 [ \u2026. ] as he put it in 2010, \u201cit is the duty of a foreign correspondent to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be\u201d. In practice he was an unrelenting critic of US and Israeli policies, a stance that increasingly coloured his work in the final 20 years of his career.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAn unrelenting critic of US and British foreign policy (and French, and Israeli foreign policy)\u201d? Tony Barber is paying Fisk a great COMPLIMENT: this is a description I would be proud to bear myself.<\/p>\n

Was Fisk guilty of a \u201clack of objectivity and exaggeration\u201d ????\u00a0 I have often heard that said, but it simply means that he was an investigative journalist who described what he saw and what he heard. He actually did \u201cinvestigations\u201d rather than simply listening government spokesmen. He went into the field and took risks. Robert Fisk, unlike many whose bylines appear in newspapers (or even the famous BBC, whose anti-Alawite coverage of Syria \u2013 to take just one example \u2013 has been too one-sided to be called \u201cimpartial\u201d), was unwilling to accept the official government line = propaganda put out by NATO member states and too often repeated as \u201cnews\u201d quoting \u201cunnamed government officials\u201d or \u2013 as the New York Times<\/em> loves to say – \u201cciting senior officials requesting anonymity for speaking about security issues\u201d or \u201con subjects they are not authorized to speak about.\u201d Information \u2026 or propaganda?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Good investigative reporters go to the front line, and they take risks. Fisk wanted to tell the stories of the victims. Robert measured the risks, and sometimes he misjudged the level of risk. That is a part of the job. Robert Fisk wrote stories that officials in comfortable Western embassies sometimes found uncomfortable.<\/p><\/div>\n

Fisk took risks. He was dismissive of \u201chotel journalists\u201d whose interviews are done by phone, or in the bar of a comfortable and secure hotel. I have often made similar criticisms about Western embassy and aid officials who only visit villages beside a tarmac road. I sleep in nomad tents and in villages with no water supply where I meet real people. If tarmac roads and 4WD vehicles provide your only vision of Africa, or Afghanistan, or Algeria – where Fisk reported on a vicious civil war during the 1990s – then your vision is bound to be distorted.<\/p>\n

I am not saying that journalists should ignore government sources, or that they should not talk to opposition political leaders and government ministers in any country. I am saying that \u2013 like Robert Fisk \u2013 they need to get out into the streets and villages, meet other people and hear what is being said by those who live far from the capital city. Only then can outside observers present both sides of a political crisis, and that is what I call \u201cimpartial\u201d analysis. As for pretending \u201cobjectivity\u201d\u2013 that is rubbish. I used to tell my students in their first lesson of a semester, that \u201cobjective\u201d is a word used by politicians and liars: who are often the same. We need active listening and the \u201csubjectivity\u201d of intelligent analysis based on experience, in order to approach the truth. Fisk did that very well.<\/p>\n

A great many lies are fed to the media through the agencies AP, AFP <\/em>and Reuters.<\/em> \u00a0Robert Fisk refused to repeat what other journalists were happy to take at face value. Fisk didn\u2019t swallow the CIA\u2019s version of Al Qaeda or ISIS, because he lived in Beirut and he had met Osama Bin Laden personally on three occasions, traveling to Tora Bora mountains to meet the Al Qaeda leader in a camp that the CIA had built for him to fight the Soviet army. Fisk was in a position to make his own independent and well-informed judgments.<\/p>\n

Which explains why I regarded Robert Fisk as one of the most reliable sources of information and analysis of terrorism, political Islam, Middle East politics, and about the Modern Arab World<\/em> \u2013 the title of a course I taught at Virginia Commonwealth University. I shall greatly miss Robert Fisk\u2019s wisdom and understanding of the region. Most of the time I also agreed with Robert Fisk\u2019s interpretation of Middle Eastern and World politics.<\/p>\n

Tony Barber described how \u2013 while Robert was reporting from Belgrade on NATO\u2019s 1999 military attacks on Yugoslavia – Yugoslav army officers pinned Fisk\u2019s reports to a wall as an example of how foreigners should cover the war. As a supporter of Peace Journalism, I admired Fisk\u2019s war reporting. He was not interested in reporting on the bullets; he was more interested in the victims and why they had become victims of violence. Not who? Or where? But WHY?<\/p>\n

English and Irish by affiliation (he earned a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin and had an Irish passport) and born the same year as me, Robert Fisk made his name at The Times<\/em>, where he worked from 1972 to 1989, before moving to The Independent<\/em>, where he spent the rest of his career. Fisk died in Dublin on October 30. Michael D Higgins, Ireland\u2019s head of state, said that with Fisk\u2019s death \u201cthe world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators<\/em>\u201d. I agree.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fisk authored a large number of books, including some thriller novels. His magnum opus was The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East<\/em><\/strong> published in 2005 \u2013 a very long, and very depressing litany of British, French and American hypocrisy and biased Middle East policies with regard to the Arab\u2013Israeli conflict, to Iran – and Fisk is not polite about the George Bush and Tony Blair invasion of Iraq in 2003. Fisk argues that the leaders of both countries deliberately misled the world about their motivations for invading Iraq in 2003.<\/p>\n

He is right. They lied. What is worse, many of us \u2013 including me \u2013 knew that they lied, wrote that they lied, and predicted appalling consequences including the destruction of Iraq and Syria, the end of democracy in Turkey and the creation of a mass migration of refugees into Europe. Are refugees a problem for Europe? Of course they are. And who created the refugee problem? Mainly Europeans.<\/p>\n

Robert Fisk was an amusing and insightful speaker with great timing. From some of his interviews, I have culled a few precious quotations:<\/p>\n

ON humanity:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Oman it’s said, \u201cIf you see another man, he’s either your brother in religion
\nor your brother in humanity.\u201d<\/em> That officially is what we in the West believe; but I don’t think we practise it.<\/p>\n

ON being a Journalist and Foreign Correspondent:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI had a long conversation with Amira Hass, that very fine Israeli journalist who works for Ha’aretz, often reports from Ramala, and whose reports are more eloquent and more courageous than any of those of other western reporters in the Middle East. And she said, after I gave my very British definition of being a foreign correspondent (about how our job is to write the \u2018first pages of history\u2019), she said “no, Robert, you’re wrong. Our job is to monitor the centers of power; to challenge authority, especially when it wants to go to war, especially when it’s going to kill people, and especially when it tells lies.” \u201cNotre r\u00f4le est de surveiller les cetres du pouvoir; de contester l\u2019autorit\u00e9, surtout s\u2019il s\u2019agit de la guerre, surtout quand il s\u2019agit de tuer des gens et de mentir.\u201d
\n<\/em>And I thought that was the best definition I’ve ever heard of our job, or what our job should be. C\u2019\u00e9tait la meilleure d\u00e9finition de notre r\u00f4le, de ce que nous devons faire.<\/em><\/p>\n

ON Osama Bin Laden and democracy:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter what happens if Bin Laden is killed tonight. He’s already created the monster: it’s there. How do we deal with it?<\/p>\n

You know, I think we go on about democracy – I don’t think we want democracy. We never wanted it. Vous savez, on parle de la d\u00e9mocratie mais je crois que nous n\u2019avons jamais souhait\u00e9 promouvoir la d\u00e9mocratie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even when there was a serious opposition, the Egyptian parliament in the 1930’s the British arrested all the opposition. When there was democratic opposition to French rule in Lebanon, all the cabinet members were arrested and chucked into prison in Rashia. So it became a tradition in the Arab World of going underground if you wanted to be in opposition, because if you were legally in opposition you’d be arrested.\u00a0 La tradition veut dans le monde arabe, qu\u2019on se cache pour rentrer en opposition aux pouvoirs politiques: sinon, tous ceux qui les opposent par une voie l\u00e9gale se trouvent emprisonn\u00e9s. <\/em><\/p>\n

Those in Muslim Brotherhood can tell you about that in Egypt today. So, in a sense you see, I don’t believe that democracy is something we’re interested in. I think Arabs would like some of our democracy. I think they’d like a couple of boxes of human rights off our western supermarket shelves. But I think they’d also like another kind of freedom. I think they’d like freedom from us. Je crois que les Arabes aimeraient bien avoir deux paquets de nos droits civiques; mais surtout ils souhaiteraient b\u00e9n\u00e9ficier d\u2019une libert\u00e9 d\u2019une toute autre nature: \u00eatre lib\u00e9r\u00e9s de nous.<\/em><\/p>\n

ON the American Empire and America\u2019s New Iron Curtain:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Fisk interviewed a man in the Middle East. \u00a0He said, “Can you tell me why the Americans<\/em>” — he meant, special forces, air force, line troops, infantry, whatever — \u201cwhy the Americans are now in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria – the special forces now have a fortress in the southern Algerian Sahara \u2013 and Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait \u2013 and still in part of Saudi Arabia?<\/em> Why are they there?”<\/em> he asked. \u201cPourquoi, me demanda-t-il, pourquoi toutes ces armes et toutes ces bases am\u00e9ricaines \u2013 un v\u00e9ritable rideau d\u2019acier \u2013 pourquoi sont-elles l\u00e0?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And indeed, you can go further north, Fisk observes. You can start in Greenland, Iceland, Britain, Germany, Bosnia -Yugoslavia now of course – Italy, Greece, and it all joins up at Turkey.\u00a0 From the Arctic Icecap to the borders of Somalia, there is now a continuous American Iron Curtain. In Pakistan too. Why?<\/p>\n

What lies on the other side? India, China, Russia.<\/p>\n

Why is that line there? What is that Iron Curtain for?\u00a0 I’m not sure of the answer, but these are the questions we should be asking. Instead of worrying about how many people were killed at Tal Afar, however important that may be. [Tal Afar is a town in Iraq where a bomb blast had killed 52 people or more just before this particular lecture.]<\/p>\n

ON The Great War for Civilisation:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The name of Robert Fisk\u2019s book comes from the Victory Medal, a United Kingdom and British Empire campaign medal, awarded to Fisk\u2019s father for his services in the First World War 1914-18. Most of the borders of the modern Middle East were created by the British, French and Americans after WWI, by splitting up the Ottoman Empire. How many people discussing politics and elections in the pubs of US or UK understand that vital fact? How many of them know that Iran began its own internal, national, democratic experiment which was destroyed by a coup d\u2019\u00e9tat engineered by the CIA and MI6 in 1953, ending with the death of Iran\u2019s most popular politician: the elected Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh? Who believes that Western democracies are really trying to export \u201cdemocracy?\u201d\u00a0 Any rational study of Western foreign policy shows that we are mainly exporting weapons, mainly to support dependent dictatorships friendly to our business interests. <\/em>\u201cN\u2019importe quelle \u00e9tude s\u00e9rieuse trouverait que nous n\u2019exportons pas la d\u00e9mocratie: nous exportons des armes pour appuyer les dictateurs qui sont favorables \u00e0 nos industries.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

ON our relationships with the Arab lands:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the conclusions I reached at the end of the book is how – and this was a more difficult message to pass across to audiences in the United States – how restrained Muslims had been towards us, given the cloak and blanket of injustice, which lay across their lands. Partly, we weren’t totally culpable; but we were very culpable because of our support for their dictators, because of our support, indeed our appointment and anointment of their dictators. [ \u2026. ] As long as they obeyed the rules, the dictators were our friends in the region and we cared nothing about torture, or justice, or democracy. So I am left, still, at the end of the book, amazed that we have been visited so little violence by this part of the world. \u201cA la fin de ce livre, je me trouve \u00e9tonn\u00e9 que nous Occidentaux avons \u00e9t\u00e9 si rarement victimes de violences faites par les peuples qui vivent au Moyen Orient.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

ON writing The Great War for Civilisation:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I found that writing of this book a very depressing experience. I never want to write a book like this again. It’s a very unhappy book.<\/p>\n

J\u2019ai trouv\u00e9\u00a0 fort d\u00e9primant l\u2019\u00e9criture de ce livre. A l\u2019avenir je ne souhaite jamais \u00e9crire un livre de la sorte. <\/em>C\u2019est un livre plein de malheurs.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Great War for Civilisation<\/em>: The Conquest of the Middle East<\/em> is a book published in 2005 by the English journalist Robert Fisk<\/em>. The book is based on many of the articles Fisk<\/em> wrote when he was serving as a correspondent in the Middle East for The Times and The Independent.<\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a> and <\/em>an independent researcher associated with UNIDIR-UN Institute for Disarmament Research and with the education association Virginia Friends of Mali. Poulton is the founder of the EPES Mandala Peace Consultancy. He is a sometime faculty member of the European Peace University (Austria), an Affiliate Research Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a consultant advisor on Africa to governments, the U.N. and the European Union. Poulton is a specialist in terrorism, disarmament, conflict transformation and peace building having 25 years of field experience with UNDP, EU, USAID and NGOs. He is the author of several books in French and English on development and disarmament. He received his Ph.D. from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France. repoulton@epesmandala.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the borders of the modern Middle East were created by the British, French and Americans after WWI, by splitting up the Ottoman Empire. How many people discussing politics and elections in the pubs of US or UK understand that vital fact?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":173018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1678,378,1855,234,1142,2219],"class_list":["post-173015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-investigative-journalism","tag-journalism","tag-mainstream-media-msm","tag-media","tag-obituary","tag-robert-fisk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}