Forbidden Iran on Frontline/World

Written by Steve Rhodes
Published January 08, 2004
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Frontline also talks to Nobel Peace Prize winner Sharin Ebadi who is investigating Kazemi's death (the transcript is online).

The Frontline/World site has a section with resources on Iran including a section on blogging there.

Koran talks about her fear before going in a interview on the Frontline/World website:


I am no stranger to working in hostile environments. I've been arrested several times before and deported from countries for covering human rights stories around the globe. In one particularly frightening episode at Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia a few years ago, I had seven intelligence officers arrest me without formally charging me, then spit on me, tell me I was an enemy of the state and confiscate my tapes, which were later returned to me. I have worked in the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, China and all over Africa. I have been shot at while traveling with local militias and even humanitarian aid convoys...

I knew that Iran wasn't engulfed in a civil war, so the chances of being killed by pieces of shrapnel or a bullet were extremely slim. But there was a different kind of danger. I heard from Reporters Without Borders that Iran was "the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East."

In London, I began meeting members of the Iranian diaspora and hearing their stories. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was all very bloody and ugly: the torture and repression of students, journalists and opponents of the regime...

I had psychologically prepared myself for potential arrest. Of course, I hoped it wasn't going to happen. Always in the back of my mind was Zahra Kazemi, and 77 hours of torture and beatings. And she had come there legitimately, as a reporter. I had entered Iran illegally. I had lied on my visa application: Where I was asked "Do you intend to engage in journalistic activities?" and "Do you intend to make contact with Iranian nationals?" I'd of course said no. I was pretending to be someone I wasn't. Had I been arrested and had the honor of meeting the Tehran state prosecutor, Mr. Saeed Mortazavi, a man whose nickname is "the Butcher of Journalists," I most probably would have been charged with espionage.


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Steve Rhodes is a journalist and photographer in San Francisco.
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Forbidden Iran on Frontline/World
Published: January 08, 2004
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Writer: Steve Rhodes
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