By April Choi
Voices
Laura Ling and Euna Lee are welcomed by their families as they their return home after being released from prison in North Korea. | Associated Press
The world’s eyes were recently glued to reports of three formerly imprisoned journalists:
Laura Ling, Euna Lee and Roxana Saberi. The thing they have in common: They were all female, minority journalists working overseas.
Not everyone who stepped in to help the three journalists knew them personally, but they felt connected to them in various ways: as a journalist, a mother, a wife, or as an Asian American. The sources in this story responded via e-mail.
In an exclusive interview with Voices, Saberi said there are pros and cons to being a female journalist in Iran. While women journalists cannot go to certain places, they can sometimes get access to all women settings. She talked about her admiration for journalists who work in Iran.
“There are many talented, courageous women journalists, writers and bloggers in Iran whom I greatly admire,” Saberi said. “An important point to mention is that whether a journalist is male or female, the risks can be great. According to Reporters Without Borders, Iran is now the largest prison for journalists in the world.”
Former San Diego AAJA chapter president Lee Ann Kim organized a vigil for Ling and Lee, who were working on a story for Current TV at the time of their capture. As executive director of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Kim has watched documentaries that give insight into North Korea. A director of one of those films, “Shadows and Whispers,” is still in hiding because she she had to risk her life to expose harsh living conditions in North Korea, Kim said.
Kim, a friend of Ling’s sister, Lisa, respects the Current TV journalists more than ever for trying to report difficult stories.
“Without journalists like Euna and Laura, how would we know the cruel conditions of women being trafficked and sold into China from North Korea,” Kim said. “I’m sure they’ll have an amazing story to tell when the dust settles, and I hope they don’t hold back on the truth.”
Mike Shen, a former producer-editor at Current TV, worked closely with Ling and edited many of her stories.
“Laura is not only a smart and bold reporter, but she is amazingly good at connecting with people in the field,” Shen said. “The reason she gets great stuff is because people like her, trust her, and open up to her.”
He described Lee as an “amazing, highly creative person.”
Shen said he was ecstatic about their release especially since there had been little information about the journalists’ physical condition.
“When I saw video of them walking across the tarmac under their own power, carrying their own bags, I felt an incredible sense of relief,” he said.
Since their release, Ling and Lee have avoided the spotlight, asking to be able to spend some time with their families before speaking about their experiences.
Saberi, who was released in May, has spoken about her capture in Iran. She has plans for a book about her six years in Iran, a project she was already working on when she was captured. She wants to share with the outside world an in-depth look at the lives of the Iranian people.
“I had come to know many Iranians during the years I lived in Iran, and before leaving Iran, I wanted to portray them and the challenges and opportunities they have been facing,” Saberi said.
Her book will give an account of her six years in Iran, including her imprisonment and the types of people she encountered there. “I hope to provide a look at the beauties and mysteries of Iran, its political tensions and diverse society,” she said.
Other AAJA members have supported all three journalists by holding vigils and welcoming them upon their return to the United States.
Craig Gima, an editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, met Saberi at an AAJA convention in 1999, and helped coordinate AAJA’s efforts to get her released.
Gima and L.A. Chung, a former San Jose Mercury News reporter, are collecting postcards for Ling and Lee at the AAJA Convention. The idea is to provide a way for individual convention-goers to write heartfelt messages welcoming them home, Chung said.
“I would want to know that my fellow journalists were thinking of me and trying to help me if I were ever in such a situation,” Chung said. Simple words such as “people are thinking of you, here in Boston,” could be helpful, she added.
