Journalist, writer, traveller and occasional explorer, but above all witness to six decades of change. Sixty years in which mankind’s ability to wreak havoc or bring peace and prosperity have never been so great, a time during which regimes crumbled, civilisations subsided as others surged, and values changed. Progress has transformed virtually every avenue of human endeavour from medicine, architecture and transportation to communications. Never has our ability to make war been more absolute, or our capacity to eradicate famine and disease more tangible. When I began as a foreign correspondent, mechanical typewriters and transmitting copy by “news telephones” to unseen speed-typists were the standard. Now ever more powerful computers and electronic mail do the job in a fraction of the time. No more wire photos, even mobile telephones take pictures. Curiosity and good sense were the principal prerequisites of a proud profession; now it seems that every aspiring reporter must have a degree in journalism. We were always moving targets, but less so 60 years ago. “Fake” news only became a concern when The Donald made it one. Back whenever it was probably called propaganda and few mistook it for anything else. Fixed deadlines have faded into oblivion, yet news twitters ever onwards, and so does life.
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