Ms Roxana Saberi, the US-Iranian journalist who was recently freed from detention in Iran, offered these words of encouragement and support on Tuesday to Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two US reporters sentenced by North Korea’s central court to 12 years of hard labour for committing a ‘grave crime’ against North Korea and illegally entering the country.
Ms Saberi, in an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, said she was ‘shocked and saddened’ when she heard about the convictions, and also ‘disappointed with the lack of transparency in the North Korean judicial process’.
She added that her own experience of being detained for nearly four months in Iran was difficult to compare with the situation of Ms Lee and Ms Ling.
‘The North Korean state seems even more closed than Iran’s, and it appears the two women are even more isolated from their families and the world than I was during my incarceration and trials,’ Ms Saberi said on CPJ’s website. ‘I imagine they feel very wronged to have been detained and tried without their basic human rights being observed.’
Ms Lee, 36, and Ms Ling, 32, were arrested near the China-North Korean border on March 17. They were reporting about the trafficking of North Korean women at the time of the arrest. It is still unclear if the two women had strayed into the North or were taken by border guards who had crossed into China. Their cameraman and local guide both escaped.
The families of Ms Lee and Ms Ling have made repeated appeals to Pyongyang for their release on compassionate grounds. In a statement on Monday, they said that Ms Ling has a ‘serious medical condition’ that will be worsened by her prison sentence. It also said that Ms Lee’s four-year old daughter was beginning to worry about her mother. Supporters around the globe have also rallied, calling for the North to free the two journalists.
Ms Saberi admitted that support from the public, given to her in updates from her parents every week, gave her strength to carry on. ‘I was amazed and very moved at the support I received – both from friends and from strangers. This backing made me aware that I was not alone.’
The trial and sentencing of the two journalists comes amid rising tension between North Korea and other world powers. Revelations that the North tested a nuclear bomb on May 25 were followed by multiple rocket tests, and Ms Saberi believes that Ms Lee and Ms Ling were ‘likely to see themselves as political pawns in a larger, complex game.’
The administration of US President Barack Obama, however, has said that it would resist any North Korean attempts to tie the fates of the two journalists to the current disputes over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic ambitions.
Both Ms Lee and Ms Ling work for former US vice-president Al Gore’s Current TV network.
While the US government considers its next step, Ms Saberi urged Ms Lee and Ms Ling to remain strong, sharing the lessons she learnt from her own detention. ‘Try to turn the challenges you are facing into opportunities. Do not fear but love, have hope and courage, and stand up for what you believe in. No one can hurt your soul.’
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