Journalist Simon Dring, a friend of Bangladesh, dies

British journalist Simon Dring, a great friend of Bangladesh, died in a hospital in Romania on Friday. He was aged 76.

Chris Barlas, a relative of Simon Dring, confirmed his death to the media.

Simon Dring covered Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971 and his reports were published in renowned global media.

In his long journalism career, he worked for Reuters, The Telegraph and BBC as a foreign correspondent. He also worked for Ekushey Television in late 1990s as managing director.

Also, he was a television presenter and documentary maker.

Simon Dring was the first foreign journalist to witness the genocide Pakistani occupied forces committed in 1971, the war of Bangladesh's independence.

Putting his life in danger, he wrote reports and informed the whole world about the horrific torture and genocide of the then West Pakistani forces.

Ignoring the martial law, he collected news on the liberation war from March 27 and sent those to The Telegraph in England. Title of one of his reports was ‘Tanks Crash Revolt in Pakistan’ on March 30.

His reports were widely accepted in the international arena in support of Bangladesh’s fight for independence.

Simon had been working as a War Correspondent at the BBC for a long time since the sixties. He had been reporting on the wars in various conflicting countries of the world.

He began his career as an editing assistant at the World Newspaper in Bangkok when he was just 18 years old. He also reported on the Vietnam War for Reuters and other news agencies.

In his career, Simon covered 22 wars and he won numerous awards in Britain and other countries.

Simon came back to Bangladesh as the managing director of Ekushey Television, Bangladesh's first private terrestrial television station, in 1997. Television journalism in this country got a new dimension because of him.