A former Miss North Dakota, who’s been working in Iran as a freelance reporter, is being detained in undisclosed location there.
31-year-old Roxana Saberi has reported for NPR, “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer”, and Fox News Channel, among others as the Tehran bureau chief for Feature Story News. Her press credentials were revoked by the Iranian government more than a year ago, but she was being allowed to file short stories until her arrest about a month ago.
NPR reports the Saberi family decided not to go public with Saberi’s arrest until yesterday. Her father, who still lives in Fargo, last spoke to her on February 10 and said he doesn’t know where she’s being held or what the charges are.
“Roxana Saberi is one of the most courageous people I have ever met”, said Simon Marks, FSN’s President and Chief Correspondent. “It is imperative that the authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran now divulge her whereabouts, and explain to both her family and her legal representatives the reasons for her detention”. Saberi served as FSN’s Tehran Bureau Chief from February 2003 to July 2006.
Saberi grew up in North Dakota and graduated from Concordia College. She was Miss North Dakota 1997 and worked briefly at KLVY-TV in Fargo.
(photos: FSN/Saberi Family via KFYR-TV)