Murdered journalist Pearl honored at Colby

WATERVILLE – Slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was “an ordinary guy” who was cautious about his safety but not easily intimidated, his sister said Wednesday night as she accepted an award from Colby College on his behalf.

Tamara Pearl accepted the college’s Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award at a ceremony attended by more than 200 people.

Pearl, the 50th recipient of the award, was abducted in January while on his way to interview a Muslim fundamentalist leader in Pakistan.

While Pearl was cautious, “he didn’t let anybody intimidate him into abandoning what he believed in,” Tamara Pearl said.

“In the end, he wasn’t intimidated into lying to his captors about his Jewish [faith],” she said.

“Danny was an ordinary guy,” said his sister, who has co-founded a foundation to promote cross-cultural understanding. But he has now become “a powerful symbol” of religious and cultural tolerance, she said.

The presentation and reading of a citation honoring Pearl was followed by a panel discussion on the dangers of reporting in wartime, moderated by syndicated columnist David Broder, a 1990 recipient of the Lovejoy award.

Lovejoy, born two centuries ago, was a graduate of what is now Colby College, a private liberal arts college. As editor of a newspaper in Alton, Ill., his abolitionist articles prompted attacks by pro-slavery thugs.

In 1837, he was killed by a mob that burned his newspaper office. Lovejoy is considered the first martyr of freedom of the press.

Pearl is the second journalist to receive the Lovejoy award posthumously since it was first presented in 1952. In 1977, it was presented to Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, who was killed while investigating criminal activity.

Pearl, in addition to being the Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, was a classically trained musician who played the violin and mandolin. He disappeared while researching a story, and his dismembered body was found in May in a shallow grave in Karachi, a center of Islamic fundamentalism.

Four Islamic militants were convicted in July in Pearl’s kidnapping and murder. One was sentenced to be hanged and the other three were sentenced to 25 years in prison. Their appeals are pending.