TRIBUTES have been received for respected media man Mike Maber who has died.

Mr Maber, 73, from Weymouth, had a long and illustrious career in the media including working for local and national newspapers and the BBC as well as setting up his own production companies.

For several years he was head of media operations at Dorset Police, responsible for the press office, video, photography and graphics unit.

Former chairman of the Dorset Police Federation Clive Chamberlain said Mr Maber had a “unique capacity for friendship” and was also a respected journalist.

He said: “I first knew him in the 1980s when I was a beat officer.

“He was very much a larger than life character with a witty sense of humour and a great sense of fun but underneath there was a very accomplished journalist with great media experience.”

Mr Chamberlain added: “When he worked for Dorset Police he was well respected by the people he worked with and by the local media. He was always very helpful and believed in being transparent.”

Former Weymouth Grammar School pupil Mr Maber started his career working as a cub reporter on the Echo in the late 1950s.

He then spent five years in the Paris office of the international edition of the New York Herald Tribune, before starting at the BBC where he would stay for 10 years, researching, directing and producing documentaries like ‘Cause for Concern’, ‘Man Alive’, and ‘The Philpott File’.

He later set up a production company specialising in writing and directing corporate, training and sales videos for companies such as Esso, Mars and Westland.

Mr Maber, who has two daughters and five grandchildren, ran a hotel in Weymouth with his wife Ros, before heading up Dorset Police’s press and media office.

He later set up his own public relations and media communications company based at his home in Goldcroft Avenue.

Lifelong friend Eric Church said: “Mike had a very strong personality.

“He was a gregarious person and very humorous. He got on well with people and his love was for journalism, he loved asking questions.”