A public talk with Robert Fisk — introduced by Noam Chomsky.
Robert Fisk (born July 12, 1946 in Maidstone, Kent) is an award-winning British journalist and author. He is the Middle East correspondent of the UK newspaper The Independent, and has spent more than 30 years living in and reporting from the region. [1]
Fisk has been described in the New York Times as “probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain.” [2] He covered the Northern Ireland Troubles in the 1970s, the Portuguese Revolution in 1974, the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War, the 1979 Iranian revolution, the 1980-88 Iran–Iraq War, the 1991 Gulf War, and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He has received numerous awards, including the British Press Awards‘ International Journalist of the Year award seven times. Fisk speaks vernacular Arabic, and is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden – three times between 1994 and 1997.[3] [4]
Fisk has said that journalism must “challenge authority — all authority — especially so when governments and politicians take us to war.” He has quoted with approval the Israeli journalist Amira Hass: “There is a misconception that journalists can be objective … What journalism is really about is to monitor power and the centres of power.” [5]
He has written at length on how much of contemporary conflict has, in his view, its origin in lines drawn on maps: “After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father’s war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career — in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad — watching the people within those borders burn.” [6]
Robert Fisk discusses the Middle East after a lengthy topic preface from Prof. Noam Chomsky. Mr. Fisk and Prof. Chomsky take questions after Mr. Fisk’s lecture.
Mr. Fisk is an amazing storyteller with an extremely sharp mind and open heart, making him one of my favorite journalists and lecturers.
“War, Geopolitics, History: Conflict in the Middle East” (1:41:44):
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[…] Robert Fisk – “War, Geopolics, History: Conflict in the Middle East” (Video) A public talk with Robert Fisk — introduced by Noam Chomsky. Wikipedia- Robert Fisk: Robert Fisk (born July 12, 1946 in Maidstone, Kent) is an award-winning British journalist and author. He is the Middle East correspondent of the UK newspaper The Independent, and has spent more than 30 years living in and reporting from the region. [1] Fisk has been described in the New York Times as “probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain.” [2] He covered the Northern Ireland Troubles in the 1970s, the Portuguese Revolution in 1974, the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War, the 1979 Iranian revolution, the 1980-88 Iran–Iraq War, the 1991 Gulf War, and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He has received numerous awards, including the British Press Awards‘ International Journalist of the Year award seven times. Fisk speaks vernacular Arabic, and is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden – three times between 1994 and 1997.[3] [4] Fisk has said that journalism must “challenge authority — all authority — especially so when governments and politicians take us to war.” He has quoted with approval the Israeli journalist Amira Hass: “There is a misconception that journalists can be objective … What journalism is really about […] […]
[…] “War, Geopolitics, History” – lecture by Robert Fisk, introduced by Prof. Noam […]
[…] conflict, Lebanon, Hamas, Hizbollah, and the Middle East, Robert Fisk’s lecture “War, Geopolitics, History: Conflict in the Middle East” is highly recommended. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)News in Brief: 18 June […]