Sotloff: Driven Reporter And Mideast Expert
Updated: 12:29pm UK, Wednesday 03 September 2014
Steven Sotloff, the US journalist who was beheaded by Islamic State militants, was passionate about the Middle East and had long worked in the area.
Friends and colleagues described 31-year-old Mr Sotloff as an honest and courageous journalist who sought to understand the culture of the places he reported from and tell the stories of the people affected by conflict.
His work appeared in Time, Foreign Affairs and World Affairs magazines.
"Steven was very ethical, very driven, an exceptional journalist and an exceptional person," said Matthew Van Dyke, an activist and film-maker who met Mr Sotloff in Libya in 2012.
"He was also a cautious journalist, he did everything the right way," he told Sky News.
Mr Sotloff vanished in Syria in August 2013. His capture was kept secret for months at the request of his family, who said they were now grieving privately.
He then appeared in a video that showed the beheading of fellow US journalist James Foley last month.
A Miami native, Mr Sotloff attended the University of Central Florida, where he took an interest in journalism. He did not graduate from the university.
"Devastated and crushed. Steve was an amazing friend. Lucky to have him in my life. Heart is heavy for his family," Emerson Lotzia, who roomed with Mr Sotloff at UCF, said via Twitter.
He covered the Arab Spring uprisings and several Middle East hotspots, including Yemen, Egypt and Libya. He learnt Arabic.
"He lived in the region for a time, he really got to know the people, the culture," said Mr Van Dyke.
"This was a region that was important to him, he wasn't somebody who jumped from conflict to conflict all over the world, he was a regional specialist and he knew what he was doing."
In his Facebook and Twitter profiles Mr Sotloff called himself a "stand-up philosopher from Miami" and often spoke of his love for the Miami Heat.
In June 12, he tweeted: "Is it bad that I want to focus on #syria, but all I can think of is a #HEATFinals repeat".
A statement by World Affairs released on August 20 described Mr Sotloff as "an honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly. He is certainly courageous".
The executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Mr Sotloff, like Mr Foley, had gone to Syria "to tell a story".
"Journalists know that covering war is inherently dangerous and that they could get killed in crossfire," Joel Simon said.
"But being butchered in front of camera simply for being a reporter is pure barbarism."
The group said that at least 70 other journalists have been killed covering the conflict in Syria, including some who died over the border in Lebanon and Turkey.
More than 80 journalists have been kidnapped in Syria, it said.
Some Western journalists are believed to be in the hands of IS.
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