She spent 100 days in prison and still doesn’t know why. But journalist Roxana Saberi doesn’t feel she did anything wrong because all she really was looking for was information.
Saberi had been living in Iran for six years and was collecting research for a book she was writing on Iranian society. On Jan. 31 of this year, she was arrested and, according to her, made a false confession to her Iranian interrogators that she was a U.S. spy in hopes she would be freed. Saberi’s eight-year sentencing led to a hunger strike. She was released on May 11 after an appeals court cut her jail term to a two-year suspended sentence — and after thousands protested around the world for her release.
Even though Saberi is now home, what does her experience say about the availability of information and the freedom of journalists globally? Well, it depends on where you are.
The United States’ Freedom of Information Act allows the disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the government. Laws like these allow citizens and journalists in the U.S. to examine government activity and have an input in decisions that affect them. Not all countries have journalistic protections, however.
Saberi’s case in Iran (as well as the case of Laura Ling and Euna Lee on trial in North Korea for alleged spying) shows that even as an American journalist, problems can arise when searching for information abroad.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981, Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world to be a journalist. Their statistics also show that from 2000 to 2008, 125 journalists have been imprisoned worldwide with China having the most at 28. From January 1992 to April of this year, approximately 734 journalists have been killed around the world — 32% of the suspected perpetrators in the murders were traced back to political groups.
Even though the U.S. has protections for journalists, it’s still not perfect. The CPJ wrote a letter to President Barack Obama on June 1 urging him to address issues of journalistic freedom, and in particular that of Reuters freelance photographer, Ibrahim Jassam.
According to the letter, Jassam “was detained by U.S. forces at his home just outside Baghdad on September 2, 2008. A November 30 Iraqi Central Criminal Court decision found that there was no evidence to hold Jassam, and an order that U.S. forces release him was rejected by U.S. military authorities, who concluded that he ‘continued to pose a serious threat to the security and stability of Iraq.’” The exact threat is unknown.
When reporters and ambitious researchers try to delve into a more controversial and covert world, things can get messy. Although the persecution and cover-ups will most likely continue, the pursuit of truth far outweighs the risk for many journalists.
photo by steve rhodes