News Releases

RTNDA Applauds Release of Journalist Roxana Saberi

For Immediate Release:  May 11, 2009

Contact: Stacey Staniak, staceys@rtnda.org, 202-467-5214

WASHINGTON – The Radio-Television News Directors Association applauds the release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was jailed for four months. Saberi was freed yesterday after an Iranian appeals court reduced her eight-year sentence to a two-year suspended sentence.

Saberi was convicted last month in a secret, one-day trial on espionage charges after being arrested in January. Since her arrest, RTNDA has called for Saberi’s release, citing the need for all journalists to be able to seek out stories, do research, and conduct interviews without fear of arrest for practicing the profession of journalism.  Saberi participated in RTNDF’s U.S.-German Journalist Exchange Program in 2002, an experience she said inspired her to become an international correspondent. Commenting on the importance of this case, RTNDA President Barbara Cochran said, “The freedom for journalists to work and report cannot simply be limited by decree, or be reduced by pressure or prison.”

As Saberi reunites with her family and heads home, other journalists still await trial or remain in prison elsewhere.  Among them are American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, held in North Korea since March.  RTNDA Chairman Stacey Woelfel said, “While we celebrate the release of Roxana Saberi, we want to remain focused on the Ling and Lee case, as well as other journalists around the world still being held for trying to report the news.”  RTNDA calls on the government of North Korea to release the pair and allow them to return home.

RTNDA represents members around the world, working to promote and protect journalistic freedoms everywhere it can.  Its leadership will continue to publicize these offenses against the free practice of journalism and fight for those wrongly detained, tried, or imprisoned.