Sir Mark Tully, the former BBC correspondent who served as bureau chief in New Delhi for 20 years, has died at the age of 90. He was described as a “towering voice of journalism” by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said Tully had left an “enduring mark” on public discourse.
Tully spent 30 years at the BBC, beginning in the 1960s. He moved to India in 1965, initially as an administrative assistant before taking on a reporting role. He led coverage of South Asia, including the birth of Bangladesh, periods of military rule in Pakistan, the Tamil Tigers’ rebellion in Sri Lanka, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Jonathan Munro, interim chief executive of BBC News, said Tully “opened India to the world through his reporting” and was “a joy to speak with”. Tully resigned from the BBC in 1994 after criticising its new management style. He later presented the Radio 4 programme Something Understood, which explored religion and spirituality until 2019.
Born in India in 1935, Tully moved to England at age nine and studied history and theology at Cambridge. He was knighted in 2002 by the then Prince of Wales. Mohit Bakaya, controller of BBC Radio 4, remembered him as “thoughtful, generous and searching”, adding that his voice would be “greatly missed”.
