BBC’s ‘voice of India’ Mark Tully dies at 90
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Born in India in 1935 under British rule, Mr Mark Tully made the country his home and his career, becoming arguably the best-known foreign correspondent there.
PHOTO: TRINHALL.CAM.AC.UK
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NEW DELHI – Veteran BBC correspondent Mark Tully, known to millions as the broadcaster’s “voice of India” for covering defining moments across the sub-continent, died on Jan 25 at the age of 90, the BBC said.
Born in India in 1935 under British rule, he made the country his home and his career, becoming arguably the best-known foreign correspondent there.
“Sir Mark opened India to the world through his reporting, bringing the vibrancy and diversity of the country to audiences in the UK and around the world,” BBC News interim chief Jonathan Munro said in a statement.
Mr Tully, who died in New Delhi, covered the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and the demolition of the Mughal-era Babri mosque in Uttar Pradesh in 1992.
“For generations across our sub-continent, his calm and unmistakable voice was synonymous with news,” Mr Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said in a statement, adding that he was “deeply saddened”.
“Kolkata-born Tully reported on some of the most defining moments in the region’s history,” he said.
The Times of India called him “a chronicler of India and an acclaimed author”.
Mr Tully studied theology at Cambridge University before joining a seminary.
But he returned to India in 1965, joining the BBC in New Delhi as an office administrator.
After a brief stint in London at the BBC’s Hindi and World Service, he was appointed the public broadcaster’s correspondent in New Delhi in 1971.
Mr Tully was named bureau chief a few years later, overseeing coverage of South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – a position he held for two decades.
He resigned from the BBC in 1994 after criticising then director-general John Birt, denouncing the “revolution” taking place at the corporation, beginning with a “sweeping attack on the BBC’s journalism”.
Mr Tully was awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, two of India’s highest civilian honours, which are rarely bestowed on foreigners.
Britain also knighted him in 2002 for his services to broadcasting and journalism – a recognition Mr Tully would later describe as “an honour to India”. AFP
