Student journalist Andy Ngo was fired from his job at the Vanguard, the student newspaper of Portland State University, after a video he posted on Twitter was included in a Breitbart News report.
Student journalist Andy Ngo, a graduate student at Portland State University, was fired from his job at the school’s student newspaper after a video he tweeted of a campus interfaith panel was included in a report from Breitbart News.
The video, which went viral on social media, showed a Muslim student stating that non-believers, or apostates, would either be banished or killed in countries run under Islamic law.
“That is only considered a crime when the country is based on Koranic law,” the student said, speaking about the legality of being a non-believer in an Islamic country. “That means there is no other law than the Koran. So in that case, you are given the liberty to leave the country. You can go to a different country. I am not going to sugarcoat it. So if you go to a different country…but in a Muslim country, a country based on Koranic law, disbelieving or being an infidel, is not allowed, so you will be given the choice.”
Ngo was dismissed by the editors of the Vanguard student newspaper, who claimed that he had recklessly endangered the Muslim panelist’s life by portraying the student’s remarks inaccurately. An editor of the Vanguard allegedly told Ngo that his conduct was “predatory” and “reckless,” before ultimately chastising him for the inclusion of his video tweet in a report that appeared on Breitbart News on April 27.
Four days later, the editor-in-chief of my school newspaper called me into a meeting. The paper’s managing editor was also present. They asked me about a Breitbart piece describing the event. It was the first time I’d seen the piece, which included my tweets and a tweet from one of the panelists.
My editor, whom I deeply respected at the time, called me “predatory” and “reckless,” telling me I had put the life and well-being of the Muslim student and his family at risk. She said that my tweets implied the student advocated the killing of atheists. Another person in the meeting said I should have taken into account the plight of victimized groups in the “current political climate.” The editor claimed I had “violated the paper’s ethical standards” by not “minimizing harm” toward the speaker.
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