Simon Cumbers

Simon Peter Cumbers (January 23 1968 - June 6 2004) was an Irish-born freelance journalist working for the BBC who was murdered by apparent Al Qaeda sympathisers while filming one of the terrorist group's safehouse in Saudi Arabia.

Career

Cumbers was educated in St. Patrick's Classical School in Navan, County Meath. An editor of a school magazine,"Tuarim", and a local radio broadcaster with pirate radio station "Royal County Radio".

While at St. Patrick's, Simon worked initially with the "Drogheda Independent" and the "Ipswich Evening Star", as a features writer, before becoming the Chief Reporter of Dublin's Capitol Radio (now called FM104).

In 1990 Cumbers moved to the United Kingdom to work with a variety of British broadcasters, including Sky News, ITN, APTN, and the BBC. Cumbers worked both as a journalist and a producer. In the late 1990s he retrained and became a cameraman as well, establishing Locum Productions, to supply cameramen to broadcasters, together with his wife, BBC journalist Louise Bevan.

Cumbers and BBC correspondent Frank Gardner were filming an Al Qaeda safehouse in Saudi Arabia when they were attacked. Gardner was critically wounded while Cumbers died instantly from a gunshot wound to the head. He was 36.

External links

Latest

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4919756.stm Coroners ruling]
* [http://www.connect-world.net/Media_Focus/Simon_Cumbers_Fund/Simon_Cumbers_Media_Challenge_Fund.html Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund] administered by [http://www.connect-world.net Connect-World] and funded by [http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/grants_media.asp Irish Aid] . The fund is aimed at assisting and promoting more and better quality media coverage of development issues in the Irish media.

Coverage of shooting

* [http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=746&p=opinion&a=4 Yemen Times report of the shooting of Frank Gardner and the killing of Simon Cumbers]
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/59377 Committee to Protect Journalists calls for probe into shootings] - IFEX

Reaction and obituary

* [http://www.iil.ie/meath_chronicle/index.php3?issue_id=10974 Reaction to Cumbers killing in his local Irish newspaper, the Meath Chronicle]
* [http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1233694,00.html Obituary for Simon Cumbers by Orla Guerin published in The Guardian]
* [http://193.178.1.205/information/display.asp?ID=1528 Comments by then Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen TD on the murder of Simon Cumbers]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3782189.stm BBC Obituary for Simon Cumbers]
* [http://www.locum-productions.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=2 Messages paying tribute to Simon Cumbers]