Journalist Godfrey Jansen dies, aged 79

RENOWNED international journalist and author Godfrey Jansen died in Nicosia yesterday aged 79.

Jansen, who was a regular contributor to the Cyprus Mail over the years, was a journalist for over half a century and wrote for such renowned publications as The Economist, the Los Angeles Times and The Statesman.

As West Asia correspondent for The Statesman for ten years, Jansen covered Cyprus Independence through to the 1963-64 intercommunal troubles. He was also the last journalist to interview the island’s last British governor Sir Hugh Foot.

Jansen was born in Akyab in what was then Burma in 1919. His first job after studying English literature was in the Calcutta station of All India Radio, for where he was selected and posted to a government college to teach.

He then joined the Indian Air Force, serving as a public relations observer and official war correspondent during the Second World War.

After the war, Jansen joined the National Herald as a journalist, and opted for foreign service.

This included Cairo, the UN, Jakarta, Istanbul and Beirut.

In 1959, Jansen joined The Statesman and covered not only Cyprus but also the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.

In 1970 he became the “Levant Correspondent” for The Economist in London, serving 18 years and expanding his area of coverage to embrace the entire Muslim world.

Jansen also wrote for Middle East International in London, the Deccan Herald of Bangalore, and contributed regular articles to The Times of India and the Los Angeles Times.

Jansen also wrote four books and a fifth jointly with his wife Michael, also a well-know journalist in Cyprus and the Middle East.

The couple moved to Cyprus in 1976 as refugees from the war in Lebanon. He also survived by Michael and by his daughter Marya, who lives is New York.