Press Club 'redoubles' efforts on behalf of journalists worldwide

The National Press Club recently welcomed home Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who had been held unjustly in Iran for 545 days. It was a moving event, featuring speeches by Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, famed journalist Bob Woodward, Swiss Ambassador Martin Dahinden, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., as well as heartfelt speeches by Jason's brother, Ali, and wife, Yegi.

The Press Club paid special attention to Jason's case. Not only was he reporting for our hometown newspaper, he was also clearly a political hostage whose only “crime” was being a journalist.

And while we celebrated Jason's return, the Press Club also made note of the scores of journalists across the globe who still face detention, government crackdowns or worse.

During the Jason event, we scrolled the names of the nearly 200 journalists who are behind bars right now in Turkey, in Bahrain, in China, in Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and in Iran. The list, sadly, seemed endless.

Last year, the National Press Club gave its John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award to three journalists detained overseas. Jason, of course, was one of them.
But the two other 2015 honorees are still either detained or missing.

Austin Tice, a freelance journalist for McClatchy and other news outlets, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and has not been heard from since.

Our other 2015 award winner was Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan. She reported for Radio Free Europe, among others, and she produced a number of reports about corruption at the highest levels of the Azeri government. For that reason, it seems, she has been jailed since 2014 on unsubstantiated charges.

The Press Club also spoke out earlier this month about the Turkish government's takeover of the country's highest-circulation newspaper and affiliated news outlets. Too many reporters are behind bars in Turkey, which was No. 5 in the world for jailing journalists last year – just behind Iran and Eritrea, Egypt and the worst offender, China.

Here at the National Press Club, we add our voice as often as possible to the chorus of people who continue to remind the world about detained reporters.

We speak out so the jailers are not absolved by silence.

Jason's detention was unfortunate. He shouldn't have spent a single day in prison. His release – after nonstop pressure by the Post, the State Department, his family, the Press Club and others – gives us hope that public pressure can make a difference. And it prompts us to redouble our efforts for those who still need our help. And so we shall.