Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Free Roxana


[Photo by Eustacio Humphrey/ZUMA Press]

Recently, my in-box has been flooded with messages about Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old American journalist of Iranian descent who is currently being held in Iran on charges of espionage. Roxana is a fellow graduate of the Medill School of Journalism, and several of my former professors and and fellow alumni have set up a blog, freeroxana.net, to keep her case in the public eye and lobby for her release. A former Miss North Dakota, Roxana moved to Iran six years ago to work as a freelance journalist, reporting for NPR, the BBC and other news organizations. She maintains -- along with everyone who knows her -- that the charges against her are completely unfounded. (According to the committee to protect journalists, Iran was the sixth-leading jailer of journalists in 2008.) Please visit freeroxana.net regularly to view updates, sign petitions, etc.

3 comments:

drollgirl said...

i hope she will be set free soon. it is so awful what happens to reporters on assignment in foreign countries that are not tolerant of the press. such bullshit.

kadler said...

I'll check it out. Thanks for writing about it.

Cafe Fashionista said...

I'm on my way over right now. It's great that you're spreading the word about this site, and Roxana's story.