Maynard Institute archives

Iran Sentences Roxana Saberi to 8 Years

by richard0510

First U.S. Journalist Found Guilty of Spying by Tehran

"An American journalist jailed in Iran has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, dashing any hopes for her quick release," Ali Akbar Dareini reported for the Associated Press.

"The verdict was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of spying,Roxana Saberi and it was unclear how the conviction would affect recent overtures by the Obama administration for better relations and engagement with Washington’s longtime adversary.

"Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.

"She appeared before an Iranian court behind closed doors on Monday in an unusually swift one-day trial. The Fargo, North Dakota native had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.

"’Saberi has been sentenced to eight years in jail. I’ll definitely appeal the verdict,’ lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told The Associated Press. It was not immediately known when she was convicted."

An array of journalism groups, including the Asian American Journalists Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and Unity: Journalists of Color, had demanded that Saberi be released, as did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

On National Public Radio’s "Weekend Edition Saturday," Reza Saberi, Roxana Saberi’s father, said he plans to appeal. "Ms. Saberi and her attorney were afforded no opportunity to review the evidence against her or to mount a defense, and her lawyer was not permitted to ask the court about bail," NPR said.¬†

[On Sunday, the official IRNA news agency reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Iran’s judiciary to ensure that Saberi enjoys her legal right to defend herself, Reuters said. Saberi’s lawyer welcomed the president’s letter.]

[President Obama said Sunday he was "gravely concerned" about Saberi’s safety and well-being and was confident she wasn’t involved in espionage. The U.S. has called the charges baseless and said Iran would gain U.S. goodwill if it "responded in a positive way" to the case, the Associated Press reported.

["She is an Iranian-American who was interested in the country which her family came from. And it is appropriate for her to be treated as such and to be released," Obama said.]

The press-freedom group Reporters Without Borders said, "Coming as it does in the run-up to elections, this sentence is a warning to all foreign journalists working in Iran.’

On "Weekend Edition Saturday," Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the verdict seemed harsh and that it was important to "keep hammering away on the diplomatic front" with Iran. 

Karim Sadjadpour, associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, described himself as a good friend of Saberi. He said it was important to "make the case very publicly" for Saberi and demonstrate that it is not only the United States government that objects to Saberi’s imprisonment.

Iraninan hardliners want to sabotage any rapprochement with the United States, so this is precisely the time for the U.S. government to attempt closer ties with Iranian leaders, he said.

In a statement, NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller said Saturday morning, "We are deeply distressed by this harsh and unwarranted sentence. Ms. Saberi has already endured a three month confinement in Evin Prison, and we are very concerned for her well-being.

"Through her work for NPR over several years, we know her as an established and respected professional journalist. We appeal to all of those who share our concerns to ask that the Iranian authorities show compassion and allow her to return home to the United States immediately with her parents."

ABC News and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran issued similar statements, as did the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Radio-Television News Directors Association noted that Saberi participated in an international journalist fellowship sponsored by its foundation in 2002. "The freedom for journalists to work and report cannot simply be limited by decree, or be reduced by pressure or prison," said RTNDA President Barbara Cochran. [Updated April 19.]

April 17, 2009

A Frustrated Editor Leaves Ebony

 

As a senior editor at Ebony, Sylvester Monroe visited the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in February. Click to view his interview with WWAY-TV. (Credit WWAY-TV)

Financial Shortages Left Sylvester Monroe "Miserable"

Sylvester Monroe, the onetime Time magazine correspondent who joined Ebony magazine three years ago as a senior editor, left the publication on Monday in frustration that the financial turmoil in the industry had taken such a toll at Ebony. "I was so miserable it was hard to come to work," he said.

"We’re asking people to write for exposure because we can’t pay them, which I think is wrong," he told Journal-isms. The nation is witnessing "the biggest story in black America since the Emancipation Proclamation and we’re watching it pass by," he told Journal-isms, referring, of course, to the presidency of Barack Obama.

Ebony, the nation’s largest magazine targeting African Americans, is in the midst of a major reorganization in which staffers have had to reapply for jobs. With the departure of longtime managing editors Walter Leavy and Lynn Norment, Monroe said, the recent editorial leadership of Ebony was left to Editorial Director Bryan Monroe and him.

He said resigned April 7 but he offered to stay for 30 days, while the current issue was completed. Publisher Linda Johnson Rice, after being amenable that Friday to such a timetable, changed her mind on Monday and said that if Monroe was so miserable, he should leave then. He did.

Helping to produce Ebony 'could have been the best job of my life,' editor said.Asked to comment, spokeswoman Wendy E. Parks gave Journal-isms this statement:

"Johnson Publishing Company is in the final phase of its reorganization, which was deliberately designed to strengthen and address opportunities within all aspects of our organization. We anticipated that employee departures would be a part of normal attrition as people make career decisions they feel are best suited and appropriate for them. We certainly wish Sylvester, who served as one of Ebony’s senior editors, all the best in his future endeavors."

After Bryan Monroe hired his assistant when he became editorial director of Ebony and Jet in 2006, he made Sylvester Monroe, now 57, his first hire. The two Monroes are not related. Bryan Monroe had been assistant vice president for news of the defunct Knight Ridder newspaper company and president of the National Association of Black Journalists.

After work at Newsweek and Time magazines, Sylvester Monroe spent two years as Sunday editor on the National Desk of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was editor in chief of an ill-fated Atlanta business, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, was acting supervising senior editor on National Public Radio’s "The Tavis Smiley Show" and was deputy managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News.

"I am really looking forward to returning home in every sense of the word, home to Chicago where I grew up, home to magazines where I got my start in journalism and home working with African Americans," Monroe said in 2006. He repeated those sentiments on Friday, adding, "This could have been the best job of my life.

"I didn’t come to be a reporter, I came to be an editor, but then the money situation began to be really bad," Monroe said. Moreover, "writing began to take a back seat" at the publication to financial concerns.

Others have said Johnson employees were told to cover Obama’s inauguration using their own funds, for reimbursement later. To save money, some decided to drive from Chicago to Washington.

Monroe said he was particularly pleased with a package on "The Africa You Don’t Know" that ran in December 2007, part of a lavish issue on the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" album; the July 2007 issue on which the cover asked, "Who you callin’ a . . . " about the n-word; the pro- and con feature "Two Sides" that has been dropped for financial reasons; and the presence of himself and other Ebony and Jet staffers covering Obama during and after the campaign.

But Monroe said his primary job was to be assembling an array of freelance writers. He said he put together some of the best writers in America. "And then the bubble burst.

"I’ll always be grateful for Linda Johnson Rice and Bryan Monroe . . . for the opportunities they gave me to be part of history," Monroe said.

"It’s not just Ebony, it’s everywhere. I still believe I have a lot to offer. Until then, my peace of mind is more important than a job."

A onetime Time co-worker, Jack E. White, said on Saturday, "It is a doggone dirty shame that the nation’s best known black magazines could not find a way to retain the services of my old friend and former colleague, Sylvester Monroe. He is one of the ablest and most honorable veteran reporters in the business. I can’t imagine how Ebony can replace him."

Handyman’s Chilling Tale of Bailey Killing

Bakery Boss Called Writer "the M.F. That Killed My Dad"

"After striking a deal with prosecutors, Devaughndre Broussard described in detail how he carried out orders from the leader of Your Black Muslim Bakery to kill Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey, including specific instructions to fire enough rounds to make sure ‘it ain’t no coming back,’ " Jaxon Van Derbeken reported Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle. The solving of the killing of Chauncey Bailey is the culmination of more than 140 stories and multimedia packages produced by the Chauncey Bailey Project.

"The 21-year-old former handyman for the bakery chillingly and nonchalantly took prosecutor Chris Lamiero step by step March 23 and 24 through the events surrounding the slayings of the Oakland Post editor and another man. Both shootings, he said, were ordered by Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of the bakery, a now-defunct black empowerment group.

"Bey, said Broussard, was closely involved in the planning of Bailey’s slaying, even going over details with Broussard and another man from the bakery of how the journalist could be killed as the three talked outside Bailey’s Oakland apartment.

"Broussard gave his version of the killing and events before and afterward as part of an agreement under which he will plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter in exchange for a 25-year sentence and a promise to testify against Bey, 23. The Chronicle obtained a recording of Broussard’s five-hour statement.

"He is expected to testify next week before a grand jury that is considering whether Bey should be charged in the slaying of Bailey, 57, who was shot repeatedly on a downtown Oakland street as he walked to work Aug. 2, 2007.

"Bey, said Broussard, had a grudge against Bailey because the journalist once ‘wrote about his pops,’ Yusuf Bey, who founded the bakery and ran it until his death in 2003.

"Broussard said he first heard of Bailey ‘a couple of days before he got hit.’ Bey IV told him, ‘He was like . . . he killed my father, like – not like directly, but like indirectly and . . . like stress – like you said stress will eat you up."

"Bey also referred to Bailey as ‘the mother- that killed my dad,’ Broussard said.

"Bailey worked at the Oakland Tribune from 1993 to 2005 before becoming editor at the Oakland Post in 2007. Broussard’s interview with the prosecutor does not make clear what specifically the journalist wrote that Bey considered responsible for killing his father, who died of cancer.

"’I didn’t know nothing about that, except for what Yusuf Bey IV told me what dude did,’ Broussard said. ‘I didn’t have no personal vendetta.’

"Bey’s main problem with Bailey, however, was a story the bakery leader believed Bailey was working on for publication Aug. 3, 2007, the day after his death. The bakery was in the midst of financial problems, and Bey was struggling for control with a distant relative, Saleem Bey."

Stephen A. Smith’s "Wonderful Ride" at ESPN to End

Stephen A. SmithStephen A. Smith, the former Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist who left that newspaper partially because the newspaper thought he was spending too much time on ESPN, is leaving the cable network on May 1, Smith and ESPN confirmed on Friday.

Smith said on his blog, "My last day at ESPN is May 1. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful ride, filled with great accomplishments, great memories and, most importantly, great friendships. It’s difficult to express how appreciative I am to everyone at ESPN for all they’ve done for my career. But nothing lasts forever. It’s time to move on.

"Who knows, but . . . you can keep up with me right here on StephenA.com as well as on Twitter to find out! I’ll just be moving on with some degree of sadness, remembering all the friends I’ll leave behind."

ESPN said this: "We thank Stephen A. for his many contributions to ESPN and wish him well. We decided to move in different directions."

The Web site The Big Lead, which broke the story on Thursday, wrote, "Within the last month, a source says that ESPN and Smith went to the negotiating table and couldn’t reach an agreement. Apparently, ESPN’s offer was considerably lower than Smith’s previous contracts – which were multi-media faceted – and Smith passed. He was then offered the decision to work through the remainder of his contract, or walk away and still get paid, and a source says Smith decided to work."

Asked if that account was accurate, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told Journal-isms, "His contract was up and we decided to go in different directions."

Smith appeared on the morning show "First Take," had written for ESPN: The Magazine and was part of news shows across ESPN platforms, a spokesman said, primarily discussing the NBA. Previously, Smith had a show on ESPN radio and a television show, "Quite Frankly."

Apart from ESPN, Smith substituted for comedian Steve Harvey Thursday on Harvey’s syndicated Clear Channel morning radio show as Harvey plugged his best-selling book on ABC’s "Good Morning America."

[Attorney C.K. Hoffler of the Stuart, Fla.-based Willie E. Gary law firm told Journal-isms on Monday that Smith’s case against the Philadelphia Inquirer over his dismissal was still alive, though no court papers have been filed.] [Updated April 20.]

President Obama is welcomed Thursday by Mexican President Felipe Calder??n. (Credit: Pete Souza/White House)

Slightly More Diverse Press Corps Travels With Obama

Only two black U.S. reporters, Helene Cooper of the New York Times and Suzanne Malveaux of CNN, are believed to have accompanied President Obama on his trip to Europe for the G-20 summit two weeks ago, but there was slightly better representation of African American and Hispanic journalists on Obama’s trip this week to Mexico and to the two-day Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, told Journal-isms that the traveling press corps included herself, NBC News producer Athena Jones, CNN reporters Malveaux and Dan Lothian, black photographers such as Rodney Batten of NBC, Giaco Riggs of CNN and Ed Lewis of Fox, and a host of Mexican reporters based in Washington.

Univision representatives could not be reached, but Alfredo Richard, spokesman for the NBC-owned Spanish-language Telemundo network, said anchor Pedro Sevcec flew to Mexico to cover the Obama trip and did his "Noticiero Telemundo" from NBC’s Mexico City bureau on Thursday and Friday.

"Our bureau also helped in the production of NBC’s coverage," he said. "Telemundo network is not in Trinidad but we are covered" using reporter Marylis Llanos of WSCV-TV in Miami.

[At Obama’s news conference on Sunday at the close of the summit, he started the questioning with Edna Schmidt of Univision.]

The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Thursday that it hoped the Summit of the Americas would result in a firm commitment to media freedom and human rights by the participating presidents.

"It will be US President Barack Obama’s first time at a gathering of the hemisphere’s leaders and comes on the heels of an official visit by him to Mexico. There has been evidence of a stronger commitment to press freedom in the United States since his 20 January inauguration and his administration, which wants to break with its predecessor’s practices, is seeking a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council," the group said.

"Noting this new political will, Reporters Without Borders wrote to President Obama on 17 February expressing the hope that the country of the First Amendment will act according to its principles as regards three western hemisphere press freedom issues in which it is directly concerned." It said those issues concern Mexico, Colombia and Cuba.

In the Chicago Tribune, columnist Clarence Page, a board member of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote of the seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus who recently visited Cuba, "The black caucus members said they were eager to speak with the island’s many Afro-Cubans. Imagine the dialogue they could have stirred up during their five-day visit if they had spoken to Afro-Cuban dissidents?"

Page noted there were "21 journalists still behind bars in Cuba, by CPJ’s count, making that island the world’s second-leading jailer of journalists, after China.

"That’s one reason why I was disappointed to see the black caucus delegation lavish praise on the Castros for their hospitality, yet ask for nothing on behalf of freedom and human rights. ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand,’ Frederick Douglass wrote. ‘It never did and it never will.’"

By contrast, DeWayne Wickham, columnist for USA Today and Gannett News Service, wrote on his blog, "the Obama policy inadvertently discriminates against the majority of Cubans – who like him – are of African descent."

Hispanic Audience Swells to 20 Million on Internet

"The U.S. Hispanic audience on the Internet has swelled to 20 million unique users, growing over the past year at a rate that’s nearly fifty percent faster than that of the general population, according to a new comScore report," Mike Shields wrote Thursday for MediaWeek.

"However, despite that growth trajectory, the U.S. Hispanic audience has a ways to go to catch up to the general market in terms of total Web usage. Hispanics now account for 11 percent of the Web’s population, but still only generate nine percent of the total time spent with the medium. That’s likely driven by the maturity of the general market, which is composed of a large number of long time Internet users.

"And since this demographic likely skews young, entertainment and communicating with friends account for big chunks of their surfing. For example, 18 percent of this audience time online is spent on teen community sites, while 13 percent is spent on gaming information sites and 11 percent is spent on instant messaging platforms."

Columnists Sound Alarm on Gun Violence

"On the same day that the three Pittsburgh cops were murdered, a 34-year-old man in Graham, Wash., James Harrison, shot his five children to death and then killed himself. The children were identified by police as Maxine, 16, Samantha, 14, Jamie, 11, Heather, 8, and James, 7," Bob Herbert wrote Monday in the New York Times.

"Just a day earlier, a man in Binghamton, N.Y., invaded a civic association and shot 17 people, 13 of them fatally, and then killed himself. On April 7, three days after the shootings in Pittsburgh and Graham, Wash., a man with a handgun in Priceville, Ala., murdered his wife, their 16-year-old daughter, his sister, and his sister’s 11-year-old son, before killing himself.

"More? There’s always more. Four police officers in Oakland, Calif. — Dan Sakai, 35, Mark Dunakin, 40, John Hege, 41, and Ervin Romans, 43 — were shot to death last month by a 27-year-old parolee who was then shot to death by the police.

"This is the American way. Since Sept. 11, 2001, when the country’s attention understandably turned to terrorism, nearly 120,000 Americans have been killed in nonterror homicides, most of them committed with guns. Think about it — 120,000 dead. That’s nearly 25 times the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Herbert was only one columnist of color writing recently about gun violence:

Short Takes

  • Students at Florida A&M University protested the possible removal from classrooms of some journalism and graphic professors of the School of Journalism and Graphic Communications, Taylar Barrington wrote Wednesday in the student newspaper the Famuan. "While organizers were outside, faculty and Florida A&M University Provost Cynthia Hughes-Harris met inside the building to discuss the state of 10 professors who were not in compliance with Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The faculty members did not have master‚Äôs degrees." Belle S. Wheelan, president of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, told Journal-isms earlier this week that the site-visit team does not speak for the commission and that the final decision on accreditation belongs to the board. "You have somebody who’s been a journalist for 3,000 years, surely they can teach an introductory course in journalism" without holding a master’s degree, she said.
  • "A 35-year-old court order barring the state of Tennessee from publicly releasing the arrest records of people suspected, but not charged or convicted, of committing crimes was overturned Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati (6th Cir.)," the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported on Thursday.
  • "Last week, Vibe launched Vibe Verses, its third annual online rap battle (think American Idol meets hip-hop)," Vanessa Voltolina wrote Thursday for Folio magazine. "This year‚Äôs installment features the ‘No. 1 Stan Contest,’ giving aspiring rappers a chance to be judged by artist Eminem. While Vibe has produced a number online events and promotions ‚Äî such as its recent online experiment, the Vammys ‚Äî the magazine is banking on Eminem‚Äôs popularity to boost traffic, users to its social network and, yes, subscriptions to the magazine."
  • The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, chose the Honolulu Advertiser, the Plain Dealer of Cleveland and Public Radio International’s "The World" as winners of its 2009 Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, the center announced on Thursday. The Advertiser’s seven-part investigative series told the stories of native Hawaiian women whose lives were changed by domestic violence. The Plain Dealer’s Joanna Connors told the story of her 1984 rape and its aftermath. Connors is white, the rapist was black. "The World" produced a "five-part investigative series that examines the brutality of sexual violence in conflict zones and the medical, humanitarian, legal, and political response to it."
  • The Detroit Free Press decided its stories about then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, which resulted in his resignation and jail time, were "not about sex. It was about wasting huge sums of taxpayer money," Editor Paul Anger told the Gannett Co.’s News Watch. "It was about lies that destroyed good cops‚Äô careers. It was about false testimony by top city officials that exposed them to perjury charges. We resisted the urge to publish ‚Äî in print or on freep.com ‚Äî language that could have shown up on T-shirts around the world. That would have detracted from the real substance of the story ‚Äî that Detroit had a corrupt mayor who had committed perjury." Anger was named Gannett‚Äôs Editor of the Year for his work in 2008.
  • "The Native American Journalism Career Conference invites high school students from across the country to Crazy Horse Memorial near Custer. They spend a few days working with experienced journalists and educators to learn about reporting, writing, editing, photography and design," an editorial in the Sioux Falls (S.D..) Argus-Leader noted on Wednesday. "The combination of a severe recession and changing consumer habits is challenging news outlets and directing a changing news delivery system in this country. That’s all the more reason to applaud the companies and individuals who are so dedicated to conferences such as the one at Crazy Horse. Investing in a diverse work force is important any time ‚Äî but it requires a special effort in hard economic periods."
  • Jonathan P. Hicks, who covered business news, City Hall and other local and state news for the New York Times until he left in January after 24 years, has become a senior fellow at the DuBois Bunche Center for Public Policy, a think tank connected with the City University of New York. He told Journal-isms the center is designed to highlight solutions to problems that have long plagued people of color in urban areas, and that he is additionally "working with a group on a documentary about the Camp David peace accords. It’s scheduled to be premiered in June at the Monte Carlo Television Festival."
  • "A free college education awaits Damon Weaver, the famous fifth-grade TV reporter with a dream of interviewing President Barack Obama," Marc Freeman wrote Wednesday in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "It turns out that the leaders of Albany State University, in Georgia, have been watching and admiring Damon’s growing national profile. The Pahokee student, 10, is a YouTube star who has interviewed a range of celebrities and politicians, including Oprah Winfrey and Joe Biden, when he was vice presidential candidate. Damon, who has been interviewed by CNN and other national networks, appeared last week on an ABC News ’20/20′ report about crime in America."
  • "Black professors make up 12 percent of all Emerson faculty, but their images appear far more often in the college’s promotional material and publications, a Beacon survey of those materials has found," Gabrielle Dunn wrote Thursday in the Berkeley Beacon, the Emerson College student newspaper. "In fact, three professors who have filed discrimination complaints have played prominent roles in selling Emerson to prospective students." Roger House "was twice the Journalism Department’s featured professor."
  • "’Get that guy ‚Äî he’s a reporter.’ The order, shouted in Burmese amid the chilling sound of gunfire, can be heard in the preview of the new documentary, ‘Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country’ by Danish filmmaker Anders Ostergaard," Madeline Earp wrote Wednesday for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "The preview also includes the now-notorious footage of a Burmese soldier fatally shooting Japanese cameraman Kenji Nagai at point blank as the journalist filmed the 2007 monk-led uprising known as the Saffron Revolution." The film is to be screened in May at the San Francisco International Film Festival and New York’s Film Forum.
  • "Reporters Without Borders and its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) today expressed relief at the release on 15 April of Jama Ayanle Feyte," the press freedom group said on Friday. "The freelance journalist has been pardoned by the president of Puntland, Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, after being sentenced to two years in prison for defamation by a court in Bossaso, in the north of the semi-autonomous region on 30 March."
  • Somali-born rapper Knaan gives an alternate view of pirates in this interview with Davey D., as well as this one.

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