Veteran British journalist Robert Fisk dies at 74

Veteran journalist, author, and commentator Robert Fisk has died of a suspected stroke at the age of 74.

According to BBC, he had been admitted to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin after falling ill at his home on Friday, and died shortly afterwards, the Irish Times reported.

He was born in Maidstone, Kent in 1946, and later took Irish citizenship.

Fisk won numerous awards for his reporting on the Middle East.

His sharp criticism of the US and Israel, and of Western foreign policy also drew controversy.

Covering wars in the Balkans, Middle East and North Africa for UK newspapers over five decades, Fisk was described by the New York Times, in 2005, as “probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain”, the BBC reported.

Irish President Michael D Higgins has expressed his “great sadness” about Fisk’s death on Sunday.

"I have had the privilege of knowing Robert Fisk since the 1990s, and of meeting him in some of the countries of which he wrote with such great understanding."

Statement from President Higgins on the death of Robert Fisk: https://t.co/iuewqXuE4n
(Photo: Dave Meehan, 2016) pic.twitter.com/hlWkkvGFth

— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) November 2, 2020

“With his passing the world of journalism and informed commentary on the Middle East has lost one of its finest commentators,” he said in a statement.