Саудия Арабиясында қаза тапқан ирландиялық журналист

Irish journalist

Simon Cumbers (23 January 1968 – 6 June 2004), an Irish cameraman for the BBC News in the United Kingdom, was shot by a gunman in a terrorist attack and died while reporting in As Suwaidi, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His colleague Frank Gardner, who was also shot, survived the terrorist attack but was left paralysed.

Simon Cumbers was the son of Robert (Bob) and Bronagh (Brona) Cumbers. The couple raised their two boys Simon and Stephen and two girls Eimear and Catraoine in Navan, County Meath, Ireland. Simon Cumbers was educated at St. Patrick's Classical School. Cumbers married Louise Bevan, a journalist for BBC News 24 and Radio 5 Live. Cumbers was 36 years old at the time of his murder and he was buried at Redwood Cemetery, Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland.

While a student at St Patrick's, he was editor of the school magazine, Tuairim; features writer for Drogheda Independent, Ipswich Evening and Meath Chronicle; and hosted a radio show for Royal County Radio, a local pirate radio station. He started reporting for The Weekender. Around the age of 20, he started as a rookie and advanced to chief reporter for Capitol Radio (now called FM104) in Dublin, Ireland. Cumbers worked both as a journalist and a producer. In the late 1990s, he retrained and became a cameraman as well, establishing Locum Productions with his wife and BBC journalist Louise Bevan, to supply camera crews to broadcasters. Among the stories Cumbers reported on were the 1989 death of Nicolae Ceaușescu during the Romanian Revolution; the 1990 release of Brian Keenan in Beirut, Lebanon; the late 1990s Drumcree conflict; the Good Friday Agreement and Omagh bombing in 1998, the Kursk submarine disaster in 2000, and the 2004 Madrid train bombings. Cumbers' death was considered a murder in the UK. In Saudi Arabia, Adel al Dhubaiti was arrested in 2004; tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death in November 2014, and executed 2 January 2016. Cumbers' parents spoke out against his execution. Frank Gardner wrote a book, Blood and Sand, published in 2010, about his reporting in Saudi Arabia and the attack on him and Cumbers.

A week before Gardner and Cumbers reported from Saudi Arabia, twenty two foreigners were taken hostage and killed by a faction of Al Qaeda during a shooting rampage, known as the Khobar massacre, in an eastern oil hub. The attack was an attempt by Islamic radicals to try to drive out foreigners. This act of violence made oil prices increase rapidly. The leader of the attack was Abdel Aziz al Muqrin. Later in the same month that Cumbers was killed, US citizen Paul M. Johnson Jr was beheaded in Saudi Arabia.

A year after Cumbers' death, Irish Aid established the Simon Cumbers Media Fund in honour of his memory. The fund's aim is to help, assist, and promote better quality media coverage of issues in the Irish media.

Koïchiro Matsuura, the director general of UNESCO, condemned the attack. His statement said, "I condemn this attack which targeted two media professionals carrying out their professional work, and who were investigating the ruthless al Qaeda terrorist network. It is no coincidence that the enemies of freedom and democracy attack media professionals whose work upholds the values of freedom, enshrined in the United Nations Charter, and of freedom of expression, guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "We have to be vigilant and get out and get after them and make sure we deal with this (terrorism) issue." Stewart Purvis, a former chief executive of ITN, said, "These are tragic circumstances and they are very dangerous for any media presence in Saudi Arabia."