David Hirst (journalist)

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David Hirst (born 1936) is a British journalist and Middle East correspondent based in Beirut.

Born in 1936 to a middle-class family in England, educated at Rugby, He attended Rugby School from 1949 to 1954. At 18 he was sent to do his military service in Egypt and Cyprus from 1954 to 1956. From 1956 to 1963, he studied at Oxford University and the American University of Beirut. He reported for The Guardian from 1963 to 1997 and has also written for The Christian Science Monitor, The Irish Times, the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, Newsday, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Daily Star in Lebanon.^[1]

He was kidnapped twice (including one kidnapping in Beirut from which he escaped by bolting from his captors' car in a Shia neighbourhood of Beirut^[2]) and was banned at various times from visiting six Arab countries, including Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He continued to contribute to The Guardian until 2013.