Deleted post 11/20/2011
Group Rebukes Warrior Who Claimed to Be Journalist
Update: Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote on July 22, 2015: “VanDyke, to our knowledge, did not claim to be a journalist in Libya. . . . while VanDyke acknowledged in his interview with Bruce Goldfarb that his ‘family thought I was doing more filming than I was, and more writing’ in Libya, he did not ‘pretend to be a journalist,’ as reported in the original post. VanDyke said he had been misquoted in the original Goldfarb piece, which has since been corrected.”
“Matthew VanDyke returned home last week from Libya, arriving at the Baltimore airport still dressed in combat fatigues. ‘I went there to support the revolution,’ VanDyke declared. ‘My family did not know that when I left. You don’t tell your mother you’re going off to fight a war,’ ” Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, recounted on Friday.
“What troubles us is that VanDyke told his mother that he was going to Libya to be a journalist. So when he was captured on March 13 near Brega, that’s what she told us.
“. . . In many parts of the world, journalists who are captured by rebels or governments are accused of being spies. CPJ has condemned government intelligence agencies that use journalists as informants or allow their agents to use journalism as a cover. Even the CIA has pledged not to do this because it recognizes the risk it poses to the work of journalists in conflict zones.
“We do not know exactly what VanDyke told his captors. He did not respond to our emailed questions after his release. Still, the next time a journalist is captured and swears that he is not a spy his captors may be more skeptical. And they may be less inclined to believe CPJ or other press freedom organizations because of the example posed by VanDyke.
“VanDyke told reporter Bruce Goldfarb, who interviewed him at the Baltimore airport, that he ‘appreciated’ the work that CPJ did on his behalf . . . .
“Well, Matthew VanDyke may appreciate us but we don’t appreciate him. Pretending to be a journalist in a war zone is not a casual deception. It’s a reckless and irresponsible act that greatly increases the risk for reporters covering conflict.”
- Associated Press: Matthew VanDyke, American Journalist Who Joined Libyan Rebels Returning To US (Nov. 5)
- Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post: With Gaddafi dead, Matthew VanDyke, who joined Libyan rebels, finally returns to Md. (Nov. 5)
