News

Borders USA marked World Press Freedom Day on Sunday by launching a hunger strike to protest the secret espionage trial and imprisonment in Tehran of Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi.

Saberi, 31, a freelancer who has worked for National Public Radio, the BBC and other Western news outlets, was detained by Iranian police about three months ago for working without proper journalistic credentials. She subsequently was charged with espionage and sentenced on April 18 to eight years in prison after a one-day, closed-door trial.

Saberi went on a hunger strike on April 21, and members of Reporters Without Borders in Paris launched a sympathy hunger strike a week later. Joining in the strike were other free-press advocates around the world, including students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Saberi’s alma mater