Syria Urged to Release Al Jazeera Journalist
Journalists’ association UNITY: Journalists of Color is calling on the government of Syria to release Al Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz and allow her to continue her important work in the country.
Parvaz, a former reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a 2009 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, was apparently detained shortly after arriving in Damascus on Friday to cover anti-government protests in the country.
Al Jazeera has been told by Syrian officials that they’re holding Parvaz (pictured above). She is a citizen of the United States, Canada and Iran. She joined Al Jazeera in 2010.
UNITY joins the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and other media organizations in urging President Bashar al-Assad to immediately free Ms. Parvaz, and to cease efforts to hinder the work of the international media. It was said in a statement issued today, May 6.
It believes that a free press is one of the pillars of a democracy and it is our hope that Syria will adhere to the principles that guarantee the free flow of information and ideas.
UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc. is a strategic alliance advocating news coverage about people of color,
It is comprised of four national associations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the Native American Journalists Association together with an outreach to more than 8,000 journalists of color.
