Roxana Saberi: press freedom or political bargaining chip – by Ruth Michaelson
Article published: Saturday, May 30th 2009
Rather than providing any surprises about freedom of the press in
Iran, the events surrounding journalist Roxana Saberi tell us more
about the relationship between Iran, its current place on the
international stage and the role the global media plays in its
portrayal.
Saberi, who was initially detained in January on the charge of
buying alcohol, had lived in Iran since 2003. Prior to having her press
card revoked by the Iranian authorities in 2006 she had been employed
as a freelance translator while also continuing to report for news
organisations worldwide. The charges against her were continually
altered: first for working as a reporter without press credentials,
then to espionage on behalf of the United States. Her trial was
remarkably short – as little as fifteen minutes according to sources –
held behind closed doors, and conducted without a defence lawyer and
she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in Tehran’s notorious
Evin prison. This marked the point at which her case became more about
the world’s reaction than another case of harshness of Iran’s
restrictions on journalists. Â
So what exactly is remarkable about Saberi? That her case progressed
much further than charges brought against others with dual
Iranian-American citizenship, of which there have been many, provokes a
certain curiosity. Although Iran’s less than liberal attitude towards
press freedom is well-documented, Saberi had not been a particularly
outspoken or rebellious critic of the government. The fact that her
case held such political cache is due mostly to a crucial timing which
ultimately seems to haven been responsible for her release. Saberi’s
plight was kept at the top of the international news agenda and her
hunger strike was taken on by journalists from Reporteurs Sans
Frontieres worldwide, an act which rightly acknowledges the positive
effects that such publicity can bring in these situations. Â
Saberi’s arrest on the 31st of January coincided with the
start of the Obama administration which had hitherto offered signs of a
tentative improvement in US-Iranian relations. Some argue that in much
the same way as President Obama purported to offer a new diplomatic
doctrine of openness and dialogue, the government in Tehran felt it had
to possess tools with which to negotiate; Saberi thus became political
‘leverage’ that would afford Iran greater power over the negotiations
table. This would explain the letter written by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to the public prosecutor emphasizing that Iran should not
be seen to be violating Saberi’s right to defend herself – for by this
point the stakes had risen from a question of domestic justice to
Iran’s political capital.
Yet the idea of the respective parts of the Iranian state uniting in
order to use Saberi implies a cohesiveness that does not exist in
Iranian politics, certainly not regarding relations with America. Far
more plausible is the suggestion that Saberi’s arrest was a very public
attempt by hard-line elements in Iran to poison relations with the US
at a time when discussions regarding their nuclear programme showed
potential of improving. But in a sense the motivations behind it are
now irrelevant. What we have seen is that with Saberi’s case becoming
the focal point of Iranian relations on a global level, the pressure
exerted and solidarity shown by the global media amongst others finally
forced her charges to be commuted to a two year suspended sentence,
permitting her release from prison. This illustrates the degree to
which Saberi’s case was subject to outside influence: the Iranian
government could not risk more adverse international attention on
Saberi or their treatment of journalists in general. Â
Saberi’s case presents a bizarre paradox: the world media performed
a kind of indirect humanitarian intervention, while on a political
level the plight of this one individual became the focal point of a
tug-of-war. Sadly her treatment is neither uncommon nor unique to
journalists in Iran, but the reaction to it has the potential to set a
positive precedent provided that we carry on watching.Â
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