NEWS

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CHAPEL HILL -- Robert Fisk, an internationally renowned journalist for the Independent of London, will discuss motivations behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks Nov. 11 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fisk’s lecture, "9/11: Ask Who Did It, But for Heaven’s Sake Don’t Ask Why," is free and open to the public. It begins at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building (Room 136). Following the lecture, audience members may ask questions.

An award-winning journalist, Fisk is one of Britain’s most decorated foreign correspondents. He has won 24 British and international awards throughout his career, including the Amnesty International-UK Press Award in 1998 for his coverage of human rights abuses in Algeria and again in 2000 for his reports on NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia. He has been recognized several times as the British International Journalist of the Year.

Based in Beirut, Lebanon, Fisk has been reporting on the Middle East for more than 26 years — most recently reporting on the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has covered the Israeli invasions of Lebanon, the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Gulf war.

During his tenure, Fisk has interviewed Osama bin Laden three times. Fisk has also reported on conflicts in Bosnia, Algeria, Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the University Center for International Studies and the Carolina Seminar for Comparative Islamic Studies. Funding from the center was provided through a gift to the Carolina First Campaign from Alston Gardner, a 1977 graduate of Carolina and chair of the Advisory Board for International and Area Studies.

Dr. Carl W. Ernst, Zachary Smith Professor in the department of religious studies, was instrumental in bringing Fisk to campus.

"Robert Fisk is one of the most original and courageous journalists active today," said Ernst. "His reporting, especially about the Middle East, provides an important alternative to conventional wisdom."

A graduate of the University of Lancaster, England, Fisk received a doctorate in political science from Trinity College, Ireland, and an honorary doctorate of literature and journalism from his alma mater in 1985. He was the Irish correspondent for the Times from 1971 to 1975 and the Middle East correspondent from 1976 to 1987 before joining the Independent in 1988.

Fisk is the author three books: "Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War" (1990), "In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality 1939-45" (1982) and "The Point of No Return: the Strike which Broke the British in Ulster" (1975). Most recently he contributed to "Iraq Under Siege: the Deadly Impact of Sanctions of War" (2000).

For more information, contact the center at 962-3094.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/fisk_robert110402jpg

International Center contact: Cindy DiCello, (919) 843-5287, cindy_dicello@unc.edu

News Services contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593