Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 08:01:08 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Freyd Subject: categories: Terrible news -- young Myles ''The death of Myles Tierney has robbed international television of one of its brightest young stars. He was a consummate professional, highly talented and highly resourceful.'' ''On top of his professional skills he was renowned among colleagues and competitors for his great good humor and generosity of spirit'' Copyright 1999 Associated Press AP Online January 11, 1999; Monday 06:23 Eastern Time SECTION: International news LENGTH: 593 words HEADLINE: AP Journalists Shot in Sierra Leone DATELINE: FREETOWN, Sierra Leone BODY: A television producer for The Associated Press was killed and an AP bureau chief was seriously wounded when their car was hit by gunfire while covering the civil war in Sierra Leone. Myles Tierney, a Kenya-based producer for Associated Press Television News, and Ian Stewart, based in Ivory Coast, were among journalists and government Information Ministry officials who were traveling Sunday in four cars through embattled downtown Freetown. They were being escorted by troops of a West African coalition force, known as ECOMOG, which is protecting the elected government. According to other journalists in the group, the AP journalists were in a station wagon that was approached by an armed man on the street in downtown Freetown. The man opened fire on the car with a semiautomatic rifle after an exchange of words with an ECOMOG soldier also riding in the car. Tierney, 34, of New York City, was shot and died instantly. Stewart, 32, suffered a head wound. AP photographer David Guttenfelder of Waukee, Iowa, was also in the car and suffered cuts from broken window glass. The journalists were rushed to a nearby ECOMOG base, and then flown to Conakry, Guinea. Stewart and Guttenfelder were transported from there to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. ''We are devastated by the news of Myles' death and Ian's serious injuries,'' said Thomas Kent, international editor of The Associated Press. ''It is another bitter example of the sacrifices made by correspondents who go in harm's way to cover the news.'' Nigel Baker, head of news at Associated Press Television News, said: ''The death of Myles Tierney has robbed international television of one of its brightest young stars. He was a consummate professional, highly talented and highly resourceful.'' Freetown has been carved into neighborhoods of rebel and loyalist control. The rebel Revolutionary United Front controls most of eastern Freetown and parts of the downtown, and has rejected calls for a cease-fire. Sporadic shelling had been heard overnight, but street-to-street fighting had tapered off Sunday morning. State-controlled radio warned all civilians to stay indoors, saying loyalist troops were patrolling the streets in search of rebel fighters who have been using residents as human shields. Tierney joined AP as a freelance producer for the agency's TV division in Africa during 1996, organizing coverage of a military coup in Burundi. Later that year he joined the staff and set up the agency's first TV bureau in New York. In January 1997, he shifted to Africa, based in Nairobi. For the next two years he chronicled the turmoil across east and west Africa. He was part of an AP team that for three months reported exclusively on the advance of then rebel leader Laurent Kabila in eastern Zaire, now Congo. During the assignment, he pioneered use of new technology which allowed video to be dispatched over a conventional satellite telephone. It meant the TV coverage was ahead of all opposition. He also had covered conflicts in Rwanda, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea and Somalia. ''On top of his professional skills he was renowned among colleagues and competitors for his great good humor and generosity of spirit,'' Baker said. Stewart is AP's West Africa bureau chief, based in Abidjan. He began working for AP in Pakistan, moved on to Hanoi in 1996 and began his present assignment last year. A Toronto native, he graduated from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 07:05:10 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Freyd Subject: categories: AP on young Myles Slain, Wounded Journalists Praised By TED ANTHONY AP National Writer 902 Words 5682 Characters 01/12/99 AP Online International Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. They came from all over one continent - from New York City, from Ontario, from Iowa - to cover a war in the corner of another, to tell the world about a place that few had heard of and even fewer had ever considered visiting. Myles Tierney, Ian Stewart and David Guttenfelder, journalists for The Associated Press in Africa, brought a long list of reporting credits - and risks - to their assignment in the chaotic West African nation of Sierra Leone. But on a hot, sunny Sunday, the dizzying unpredictability so familiar to those who have covered Africa caught up with them for several seconds. Tierney, 34, from New York City, a Kenya-based producer for Associated Press Television News who one colleague said "lived his life like it was the 100-yard dash," was killed instantly when a rebel soldier peppered the AP vehicle with gunfire. Stewart, 32, from Toronto, known for chasing one story and coming back with many more, was seriously wounded in the head. Guttenfelder, 29, of Waukee, Iowa, one of the AP's most intrepid photographers, was cut by flying glass and was the only one of the three who escaped serious injury. "They just wanted to kill someone. Maybe we were the closest to them," Guttenfelder said Monday from his home base, the AP's West Africa bureau in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Stewart, the West Africa chief of bureau, was airlifted Monday to London, where he was to undergo surgery for a bullet in the brain. He was in stable condition Monday night. AP President Louis D. Boccardi praised Tierney as "a brave and adventurous man" and mourned the attack. "We are in awe of the sacrifices they and others make so we can carry out our mission," Boccardi said Monday. "Africa was the opportunity in his life to realize himself," said Tierney's mother, Hanne. "And he did. This was where all of his talents really came to the fore." Guttenfelder recounted a surreal day that began at a hotel outside downtown Freetown, the unstable capital, with the AP journalists and their colleagues from other organizations trying to obtain firsthand information about the situation in the city. They'd tried to move around Saturday but couldn't because of the warfare on the streets. Sunday seemed less tense, Guttenfelder said. On the street they came upon Julius Spencer, Sierra Leone's minister of communications, who offered to escort them into town. With him were soldiers from ECOMOG, the West African regional peacekeeping force. "He said ... it was a matter of mopping up," Guttenfelder said. "He wanted to show us - and us to show the world - that they were very much in control." The journalists were skeptical, but they saw subtle signs of improvement: troops moving freely, gasoline stations reopening. As they neared downtown, and part of the convoy headed down to take a look at the city's center, shots reverberated in the distance. Down a hill they went, past the soccer stadium, past hulks of blown-up cars, past fallen traffic lights, past shuttered buildings, past corpses set upon by vultures. Then, around a corner, they encountered five armed men in American- style jeans and flipflops. One, Guttenfelder remembered, "was wearing a black bowler hat - like in `A Clockwork Orange."' No one was sure: Were they rebels or looters? "They looked kind of charged up, maybe drugged up. They were smiling, kind of laughing, acting like everything was cool," Guttenfelder said. "I felt immediately they were different. ... (But) it seemed impossible that a rebel would get that close." Then, in seconds: An ECOMOG soldier spoke to the men in a Nigerian tongue; one responded in another dialect. And things fell apart. One armed man fired a burst of shots into the AP car - a brazen act, given the ECOMOG firepower surrounding him.. "I get the feeling that he knew they were going to be killed, and they didn't care," Guttenfelder said. Tierney died instantly. Stewart went down moaning. "I just felt this blast of heat and glass," Guttenfelder said. "I immediately put my head down and I heard shooting for a couple of seconds. ... Myles was obviously dead. ... I grabbed Ian and drug him down into the car, then got out of the car into the street. ECOMOG soldiers fired back, killing the shooter and another rebel. The driver took off with Stewart and Tierney to the ECOMOG staging area in western Freetown. Guttenfelder was left behind. He shot a few pictures, then hurried to the base to help arrange an airlift for Stewart and for Tierney's body. Though he was a cameraman, Tierney's byline appeared on a range of stories from Africa. He joined AP's TV arm in 1996, organizing coverage of a military coup in Burundi. He set up the agency's first TV bureau in New York before returning to Africa in 1997. Tierney is survived by his mother and a sister, Loren, both of New York City. The family planned a private funeral; the AP was arranging a memorial service. The AP has withdrawn all foreign journalists from Sierra Leone for now. Tierney is the 24th AP journalist to die in the line of duty in the organization's 150-year history. On Monday, at AP headquarters in New York City, his picture was posted in memoriam. In it, he appears dressed for action. Atop his head is an AP hat. And he is smiling. From: Myles Tierney Subject: categories: Memorial Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 16:21:52 -0500 (EST) A Memorial Service, organized by Associated Press, will be held for Myles on Monday, January 25, at Newseum/NY, located at 580 Madison Ave. between 56th and 57th Streets. The Service begins at 10:30 a.m., and is open to all who wish to attend. Associated Press will try to make the Service available live on the Internet, at www.ap.org, for those unable to be in New York. Myles Tierney