Censorship In Iran

Based on a true story about a journalist who gets detained and brutally interrogated in prison for 118 days; the journalist Maziar Bahari was blindfolded and interrogated for 4 months in Evin prison in Iran, while the only distinguishable feature about his captor is the distinct smell of rosewater. An interview and sketch that Maziar did with a journalist on The Daily Show was used as evidence that Maziar was a spy and in communication with the American government and the CIA.

Freedom of expression and of information will always be the world’s most important freedom. If journalists were not free to report the facts, denounce abuses and alert the public, how would we resist the problem of children-soldiers, defend women’s rights, or preserve our environment? In some countries, torturers stop their atrocious deeds as soon as they are mentioned in the media. In others, corrupt politicians abandon their illegal habits when investigative journalists publish compromising details about their activities. Still elsewhere, massacres are prevented when the international media focuses its attention and cameras on events.

1) Why are some politicians and governments afraid of a 'Free Press?'

2) How free is the American press when compared to Iran and the rest of the world?

3) Despite having a free press what do we really know about Iran and its people?

4) How is being a Journalist increasingly a dangerous job?

5) Why is Journalism still such an important job?