International support for Roxana Saberi ahead for her birthday

A total of 35 press freedom organisations have signed a joint appeal by Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists for the release of jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who will be 32 on 26 April. The organisations have called for Saberi’s rights to be respected in a letter to the Iranian justice minister, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroodi. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 April 2009 His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroodi Justice Ministry Bldg. Panzdeh-Khordad (Ark) Sq. Tehran, Iran Fax: 98 21 222 90 151 Your Excellency: As journalists and members of the global press freedom community we are writing to express our concern about the April 17 sentencing of Roxana Saberi to eight years in prison on charges of espionage, after a closed, one-day trial. Saberi is a respected journalist who has lived in Iran for six years. She filed reports for NPR, the BBC, and other international news outlets before her press credentials were revoked in 2006. We call for Saberi to be released. Her judicial guarantees have to be respected, according to international standards. Trusting that you will fairly consider our collective request. Sincerely, ARTICLE 19, U.K. Algerian Centre for the Defence and Promotion of Press Freedom (CALP), Algeria Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), Egypt Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo (ABRAJI), Brazil Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Serbia Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), Canada Cartoonists Rights Network, International (CRNI), U.S.A. Center for Media Studies and Peace Building (CEMESP), Liberia Centro de Periodismo y Etica Publica (CEPET), Mexico Committee to Protect Journalists, U.S.A. Independent Journalism Center (IJC), Moldova Index on Censorship, U.K. Institute of Mass Information (IMI), Ukraine Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS), Azerbaijan Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS), Peru International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Belgium International PEN Writers in Prison Committee, U.K International Press Institute (IPI), Austria Freedom House, U.S.A. Free Media Movement (FMM), Sri Lanka Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), Colombia Maharat Foundation, Lebanon Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Namibia Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Ghana Media Watch, Bangladesh Mizzima News Agency, India/Burma Norwegian PEN, Norway Observatoire pour la liberté de presse, d’édition et de creation (OLPEC), Tunisia Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), Pakistan Reporters sans frontières (RSF), France Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), Thailand World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), Canada World Association of Newspapers (WAN), France World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC), U.S.A. For further information, contact Meredith Greene Megaw, at CPJ, 330 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001, U.S.A., tel: +1 212 465 1004, fax: +1 212 465 9568, e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.cpj.org or Soazig Dollet at RSF, 47, rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 78, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: [email protected], Internet: http://www.rsf.org