World renowned journalist Robert Fisk, who died on Friday October 30, was married to Lara Marlow for 13 years. Marlow is currently The Irish Times correspondent in Paris. I had the good fortune on one occasion to interview Lara Marlow, a lady to her fingertips.
She wrote a page-long piece on her former husband in her paper on Saturday.
She writes that he was the finest journalist she'd ever known.
This paragraph stands out:
Robert refused to cho0se sides. He knew there are executioners and victims on both sides of every civil war.
British public school, a difficult relationship with his father and the years he spent covering the troubles in Northern Ireland imbued him with profound mistrust of authority. He never accepted the official version.
He sided instinctively with the underdog. He gave voice to people who had none. That is what made him a great journalist.
And the following quote appeared in his obituary in The Irish Times on Saturday:
If you watch wars, the old ideas of journalism that you have to be neutral and take nobody's side is rubbish. As a journalist you have got to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer.
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