Reading about Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi being charged with espionage in Iran last week was surprising. Saberi father is an Iranian-American from North Dakota and his wife Akiko from Japan were proud parents of Roxana who was Miss North Dakota and holds a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago and a master’s degree in international relations from Cambridge University in the UK.
She also worked for several news organizations such as the BBC, NPR (National Public Radio) and was working on her third master’s on Iranian studies in Iran, where she has lived since 2003.
Roxana had press credentials with the BBC but those credentials was revoked. She was planning to return back to the US but she stayed in the country to finish up her research.
The problems came when she bought a bottle of wine, she was charged for breaking a law (buying wine is banned under Islamic law). Because she didn’t have a valid press card, Saberi was charged with espionage and eight years in prison.  Since being held on charges since January, her father has had contact with Roxana only twice since March.
As of today, Roxana is on her fifth day of her hunger strike and her father is very worried about his daughter’s condition. Roxana has pledged to not eat anything until her release.
Another shock was reading about Current TV’s Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s capture in North Korea. The two were captured for “illegally intruding” into the country from China. The two were interviewing Northern Korean refugees in China but apparently were on the wrong side of the border at the time.
For those not familiar with Laura Ling (sister of Lisa Ling formerly of ABC’s “The View”), Laura and Euna have been working on Current TV’s “Vanguard” episodes in which she and the crew expose certain situations from different countries.
In her profile for Current TV, Laura writes:
“Is the media broken? I’m rarely inspired by what I see in the media. Television is supposed to be the most powerful medium—but TV news seems to be anything but powerful. Vanguard is trying to change that. We’re trying to provide knowledge and context about what’s happening in our world as opposed to just covering random news events. We hope our work generates dialogue about the important issues affecting our lives.”
I’ve found her and Euna’s work for the Vanguard to be risky journalism but what she has accomplished on television has been magnificent, surprising but quite informative. Her sense of covering topics that countries rarely want the public to know about, she has been able to do uncover things that have shocked me. And for any of us who have watched their work, we understood that their passion to inform the public was important but also risky.
I truly enjoy watching their investigative reports in different countries and show us news that we would have never heard of or known of until they covered it and brought it to us on Current. I will be truthful, if it wasn’t for Ling’s work and the show, I would have never become an avid viewer of the channel.
Although her sister Lisa has not commented on her sister’s capture, her father made the following comment:
I worry quite a bit, but I’m not losing any sleep over it,” he told KCRA television in Sacramento. “I’m more or less used to it.”
I have never met either women but all I’ve thought about recently is their situations and hope that they are freed. For Saberi, being charged for espionage is just wrong. She’s a student and a journalist not a spy.
Laura Ling is known for her investigative press stories, Euna known for her work with Current as a film and video editor. I can only hope both women are treated well and will be released soon.
Gotham Chopra of Liquid Comics recently wrote an article which was publicized on the Huffington Post of how we can help these women. Chopra who is a friend of Ling’s writes about his plight of being held in a holding cell but a heartfelt message on people to get the word out about these three women.
Let us all pray for these three women and hope for their safe release. Get the word out!