Bill Stewart (television journalist)
| Bill Stewart | |
|---|---|
Stewart in 1963
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| Born |
William D. Stewart 1941 |
| Died | June 20, 1979 (aged 37) Managua, Nicaragua |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Television journalist |
| Known for | Murdered by the National Guard (Nicaragua) |
William D. "Bill" Stewart (1941 – June 20, 1979) was an American journalist with ABC News who was summarily murdered by Nicaraguan government National Guard ("Guardia") forces while reporting on the Nicaraguan Revolution as Sandinista rebel forces were closing in on the capital city of Managua in 1979. Footage of his execution was repeatedly broadcast on network television, resulting in the rapid withdrawal of popular and military support for the Somoza regime by the United States.
Stewart, originally from West Virginia, was a 1963 graduate of The Ohio State University. While at Ohio State, Stewart was active in many extracurricular activities including the Student Senate and the Sphinx honorary society, as well as a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. He came to ABC News from WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. An experienced foreign correspondent, Stewart's assignments included coverage of the Iranian Revolution in February 1979. He had been in Nicaragua for ten days reporting on the civil war between the American-backed Somoza dictatorship and the leftist Sandinistas.
On June 20, 1979, Stewart was traveling in a press van in the eastern slums of the capital city of Managua with his camera and sound crew when they were stopped at a roadblock run by the Nicaraguan Guardia (lit. Guardia Nacional, or National Guard), the main force of President Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The van was clearly marked as a press vehicle as a precaution, which had become standard practice as the insurgency and revolution increased in intensity. On the previous day the government newspaper Novedades had run an editorial describing foreign journalists as "part of the vast network of communist propaganda".
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