By Country / Iran
Iran: Farda Correspondent Talks About Her Sentence And Journalists' Dilemmas
March 05, 2008
Radio Farda correspondent Parnaz Azima, who was stripped of her passport and prevented from leaving Iran for eight months last year, has been convicted by an Iranian revolutionary court of "spreading antistate propaganda" and sentenced to one year in prison.
Azima, a former librarian and literary translator who holds both Iranian and U.S. citizenship, is appealing the verdict, of which her Tehran lawyer was informed on March 1. (More on Azima and her case)
If the decision stands, the Prague-based journalist will face a stark choice: return to Iran to serve out the sentence or forfeit the deed to her 95-year-old mother's Tehran home, which was posted in lieu of bail.
In an interview with RFE/RL desk editor Jeffrey Donovan, Azima talks about her dilemma but calls the situation for journalists in Iran more desperate than her own. She also urges reporters outside her native land to speak up for the rights of their fellow journalists in Iran.