Robert Fisk has reported from virtually every trouble spot in the world for almost forty years. His earliest assignments were during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and since then he has covered every international conflict, up to and including the Iraq and Syrian wars. He has collected virtually every award in journalism, as well as honorary degrees, and is widely recognised as the finest foreign correspondent of his generation. The Independent is extremely proud that he has told the truth about despots and dictators so fearlessly for so long. Patrick Cockburn is a distinguished writer and is the current Foreign Correspondent of the Year, one of the industry's most prestigious awards. In a lifetime of fighting to get the stories out from behind the barricades and between the bullets, Patrick most recently warned the world, before anyone else including governments and international agencies, of the dangerous rise of the so-called Islamic State. He is a journalist valued by heads of state and government. From his encounter with the corpse of Gadhafi to reporting on the outrages in Gaza and Ukraine, Kim Sengupta has been a brave and principled reporter for years, building a formidable reputation among his peers and those in power.