Derek Williams, longtime CBS News cameraman, remembered as "the mate you would want in any war zone" - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reported that Derek Williams, a longtime CBS News cameraman whose work spanned major conflicts and political upheavals across Asia and beyond, has died at 79. His family said he died Wednesday. According to CBS, Williams had Parkinson’s disease and had recently received a cancer diagnosis.

Williams spent about four decades as a cameraman in Asia after starting with CBS in Hong Kong on a trial basis. CBS said his assignments included the Vietnam War, the fall of Saigon, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the first Iraq War and violence in Beirut. In June 1989, Williams and CBS correspondent Richard Roth were detained by Chinese authorities during the Tiananmen crackdown and were later released with no serious injuries reported by CBS.

Former CBS News president Susan Zirinsky remembered Williams as a trusted colleague in dangerous assignments and praised his instincts, humanity and visual sense. CBS veteran Dan Rather also paid tribute, calling him brave and noting that his images helped convey stories from dangerous places. Former CBS foreign correspondent Allen Pizzey said Williams mentored him in Beirut in 1982 and helped teach him how to work safely in chaotic conditions.

CBS also recounted Williams’ own 2017 comments to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about the emotional difficulty of early conflict coverage and his account of marrying his Vietnamese girlfriend as Saigon’s fall neared. The network reported that Williams later lived in California with his wife, then returned to New Zealand as his health declined to be nearer to family.