Think about all of the information that you never would've known had someone not put their safety or life at risk. Think about how many scandals have been uncovered by investigative reporters and how the truth obtained changed the world. Heck, a U.S. president resigned due to the investigative work of reporters at The Washington Post.
There's no doubt that journalists play a major role in the way the world is viewed and shaped. Many of these media professionals are thanked. However, some might consider their work tactics a nuisance, which is where the level of appreciation could fall by the wayside.
Bracing the headlines over the past few weeks has been the unfortunate news of Roxana Saberi, Euna Lee, Laura Ling and Esha Momeni who were jailed in Iran and North Korea while collecting data for news stories, or academic research.
Roxana Saberi, who has been jailed in Iran since January, was recently convicted of espionage by an Iranian court and sentenced to eight years in prison. On Tuesday, she began a hunger strike (today is Sunday) and sources say that she has (obviously) become very weak. I'm not in the U.S., so I can't watch the coverage of her status, but based on what I'm finding online, this looks like big news back home.
Then last month, Euna Lee and Laura Ling from Current TV were arrested on the China/North Korea boarder while working on a story about women seeking refuge in China from North Korea's communist rule. One witness says that the reporters were on the China side of the boarder when the arrest occurred, but there hasn't been much development on this situation due to the lack of communication that the U.S. has with North Korea. A Swedish Ambassador is doing the mediating and sadly, it doesn't sound like Lee and Ling are heading home anytime soon. Candlelight vigils for these two women will be held in both Sacramento and San Francisco, California early next week.
On October 15, 2008, Esha Momeni, a Iranian-American graduate student from my alma mater, California State University, Northridge, was working on her thesis in Iran when she was stopped by police for allegedly passing a vehicle illegally. Her case is confusing because technically, she's not a journalist. Her study at CSUN is in Mass Communications within the School of Journalism and the focus of her research is on Iranian feminism.
Esha was finally released from jail in November on $200,000 bail, but since, her passport has been denied, so she's unable to leave the country. The Bull Magazine, a publication by students at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, interviewed CSUN faculty and others for a video about Esha's situation. Click here to watch. And to sign a petition for her immediate release, click here.
China doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to tolerance toward media professionals, so my friends often question some of the ideas that I have for stories. What has happened to these ladies could happen to anyone. Just yesterday, I read an article by Gotham Chopra where he talks about his cross with avoiding arrest in a "rouge nation." Some journalists aren't always so lucky.
Keep these women in your thoughts and don't ever take your freedom of speech (if you're reading this in a country that allows freedom of speech) for granted.