''The death of Myles Tierney has robbed international television of one of its brightest young stars. He was a consummate professional, highly talented and highly resourceful.'' ''On top of his professional skills he was renowned among colleagues and competitors for his great good humor and generosity of spirit'' Copyright 1999 Associated Press AP Online January 11, 1999; Monday 06:23 Eastern Time SECTION: International news LENGTH: 593 words HEADLINE: AP Journalists Shot in Sierra Leone DATELINE: FREETOWN, Sierra Leone BODY: A television producer for The Associated Press was killed and an AP bureau chief was seriously wounded when their car was hit by gunfire while covering the civil war in Sierra Leone. Myles Tierney, a Kenya-based producer for Associated Press Television News, and Ian Stewart, based in Ivory Coast, were among journalists and government Information Ministry officials who were traveling Sunday in four cars through embattled downtown Freetown. They were being escorted by troops of a West African coalition force, known as ECOMOG, which is protecting the elected government. According to other journalists in the group, the AP journalists were in a station wagon that was approached by an armed man on the street in downtown Freetown. The man opened fire on the car with a semiautomatic rifle after an exchange of words with an ECOMOG soldier also riding in the car. Tierney, 34, of New York City, was shot and died instantly. Stewart, 32, suffered a head wound. AP photographer David Guttenfelder of Waukee, Iowa, was also in the car and suffered cuts from broken window glass. The journalists were rushed to a nearby ECOMOG base, and then flown to Conakry, Guinea. Stewart and Guttenfelder were transported from there to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. ''We are devastated by the news of Myles' death and Ian's serious injuries,'' said Thomas Kent, international editor of The Associated Press. ''It is another bitter example of the sacrifices made by correspondents who go in harm's way to cover the news.'' Nigel Baker, head of news at Associated Press Television News, said: ''The death of Myles Tierney has robbed international television of one of its brightest young stars. He was a consummate professional, highly talented and highly resourceful.'' Freetown has been carved into neighborhoods of rebel and loyalist control. The rebel Revolutionary United Front controls most of eastern Freetown and parts of the downtown, and has rejected calls for a cease-fire. Sporadic shelling had been heard overnight, but street-to-street fighting had tapered off Sunday morning. State-controlled radio warned all civilians to stay indoors, saying loyalist troops were patrolling the streets in search of rebel fighters who have been using residents as human shields. Tierney joined AP as a freelance producer for the agency's TV division in Africa during 1996, organizing coverage of a military coup in Burundi. Later that year he joined the staff and set up the agency's first TV bureau in New York. In January 1997, he shifted to Africa, based in Nairobi. For the next two years he chronicled the turmoil across east and west Africa. He was part of an AP team that for three months reported exclusively on the advance of then rebel leader Laurent Kabila in eastern Zaire, now Congo. During the assignment, he pioneered use of new technology which allowed video to be dispatched over a conventional satellite telephone. It meant the TV coverage was ahead of all opposition. He also had covered conflicts in Rwanda, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea and Somalia. ''On top of his professional skills he was renowned among colleagues and competitors for his great good humor and generosity of spirit,'' Baker said. Stewart is AP's West Africa bureau chief, based in Abidjan. He began working for AP in Pakistan, moved on to Hanoi in 1996 and began his present assignment last year. A Toronto native, he graduated from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.