David Beresford (journalist)

David Beresford
Born David Ross St John Beresford
(1947-07-01)1 July 1947
Johannesburg, South Africa
Died 22 April 2016(2016-04-22) (aged 68)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Nationality South African
Education Falcon College
Occupation Journalist
Notable work Ten Men Dead
Spouse(s) Marianne Morrell (m. 1968–2016)
Partner(s) Ellen Elmendorp
Children 3
Parents
  • St John Beresford (father)
  • Faith Beresford (née Ashby) (mother)
Relatives
  • Garth Beresford (brother)
  • Norman Beresford (brother)

David Ross St John Beresford (1 July 1947 – 22 April 2016[1]) was a South African journalist for The Guardian newspaper. He was the author of Ten Men Dead, a book about the Irish hunger strike in the Maze prison near Lisburn, County Down. He was The Guardian's Irish correspondent at the time, eventually becoming their Johannesburg correspondent.[2]

"Richard-Richard" Goldstone Controversy

In 1994, Beresford wrote in The Guardian that Justice Richard Goldstone ran a "much vaunted" judicial commission of inquiry that "failed dismally", and that was a "rubbish bin" used by the South African government. He discussed Goldstone’s "disturbing" practice by which he acted with "overt political 'sensitivity", including his being "at pains to involve the politically distinguished in the conduct of his inquiry"; and of harboring such ambition to succeed Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s post as UN Secretary-General, that Goldstone’s legal colleagues gave him the nickname of "Richard-Richard".[3]

In a 1999 interview, in which he responded to former South African President F.W. de Klerk’s reference to the "Richard-Richard" nickname, Goldstone claimed that it was all a figment of the journalist’s imagination, concocted for a satiric piece and then later included in The Guardian:

It's quite amusing, the 'Richard Richard' story was an invention of the chap from The Mail & Guardian, David Beresford. He concocted that as a sort of humorous thing in one of his satirical columns. As far as I’m aware that’s where it began and ended and it had a funny sequel because soon after it was printed he called me about something to do with the commission and I returned his call and he wasn’t there and I left a message to say, "Please tell him that Richard Richard called." He so enjoyed that he referred to it in an article which appeared in The Guardian.[4]

However, an examination of Beresford's original 9 July 1994 article in the Guardian ("Goldstone to Take War Crime's Job", p. 13) reveals that Beresford’s original reference to the nickname was not a satiric piece.[5]

Publications

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Tisdall, Simon (22 April 2016). "Award-winning Guardian reporter David Beresford dies aged 68". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  2. ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2007/jun/02/david.beresford
  3. ↑ David Beresford, "In Pretoria's Cesspit", The Guardian (London), 21 March 1994, reproduced at GlobalPost
  4. ↑ 1999 Interview With Justice Richard Goldstone, Website for Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Dialogue,
  5. ↑ David Beresford, "Goldstone to Take War Crime's Job", The Guardian (London), 9 July 1994, p. 13, reproduced at GlobalPost
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