Nieman Reports

Summer 2009

Iran: Can Its Stories Be Told?

Journalists — Iranians and Westerners — share their firsthand experiences as they write about the challenges they confront in gathering and distributing news and information about Iran and its people. Their words and images offer a rare blend of insights about journalists’ lives and work in Iran. In the fifth part of our 21st Century Muckrakers series about investigative and watchdog reporting, the focus turns to coverage of issues involving public health, safety and trust. And in Words & Reflections, essays touch on objectivity, religion, blogging, Ireland and post 9/11 America.

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Iran: Can Its Stories Be Told?

Summer 2009: Introduction

By Melissa Ludtke• International Journalism• June 11, 2009

Treatment of Journalists

Understanding Iran: Reporters Who Do Are Exiled, Pressured or Jailed

By Iason Athanasiadis• International Journalism• June 15, 2009

‘Roxana’s work consistently gave the lie to the narrative of a monolithic Islamic Republic.’ Read more

Journalism in a Semi-Despotic Society

By Byline Withheld• International Journalism• June 2, 2009

‘Censorship, low payment, and the high risk of arrest for any journalist who dares to take an investigative step, among other reasons such as lack of individual liberty, have pushed Iranian journalists to the virtual world of the Internet.’ Read more

Peering Inside Contemporary Iran

By Iason Athanasiadis• International Journalism• June 15, 2009

An exhibit of photographs of Iran featuring the work of Iason Athanasiadis, a 2008 Nieman Fellow, opened for a three-month show in January at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles, California. “Exploring the Other: Contemporary Iran,” … Read more

When Eyes Get Averted: The Consequences of Misplaced Reporting

By Roya Hakakian• International Journalism• June 2, 2009

‘Poor reporting from and about Iran has kept the West in the dark. In this lightlessness, Iranians are rendered as ghosts.’ Read more

Imprisoning Journalists Silences Others

By D. Parvaz• International Journalism• June 12, 2009

While most Iranian journalists have to operate with extreme caution, foreign journalists can be more frank on the issues they face in Iran. Read more

‘We Know Where You Live’

By Maziar Bahari• International Journalism• June 24, 2009

Working for a Western magazine in Iran, a journalist finds that he has acquired some surprisingly close acquaintances—from the ministry of intelligence. And strangely, they are all called Mr. Mohammadi. Read more

A Visual Witness to Iran’s Revolution

By Reza• International Journalism• June 15, 2009

In the mid-1960’s, Reza Deghati taught himself the principles of photography as a 14 year old living in Tabriz, Iran. During the early 1970’s, his pictures were of rural society and architecture, which he then studied at the University of … Read more

Film in Iran: The Magazine and the Movies

By Houshang Golmakani• International Journalism• June 2, 2009

‘… there are two arenas—cinema and soccer—that while not completely impervious to the political torrents have a greater margin of immunity.’ Read more

Women Reporters, Women's Stories

Your Eyes Say That You Have Cried

By Masoud Behnoud• Diversity• June 15, 2009

‘Today’s generation of Iranian women reporters are doing big things. Their mark will be left on history.’ Read more

Telling the Stories of Iranian Women’s Lives

By Shahla Sherkat• Diversity• June 2, 2009

‘Anyone who did research on women’s issues benefitted from hundreds of articles, stories and interviews that were featured in Zanan.’ Read more

Iranian Journalist: A Job With Few Options

By Roza Eftekhari• Diversity• June 2, 2009

After working for more than a decade at the now banned Iranian magazine Zanan, a journalist now in the United States describes her feelings of identity, location and loss. Read more

Views from the West

Seven Visas = Continuity of Reporting From Iran

By Barbara Slavin• International Journalism• June 9, 2009

‘The Iranian government sometimes appears to favor U.S. reporters with little knowledge of the country who might be more amenable to spin, although that has not happened in my case.’ Read more

No Man’s Land Inside an Iranian Police Station

By Martha Raddatz• International Journalism• June 10, 2009

When Iran held a U.S. reporter, an American television correspondent recalled her own brief arrest by Iranian police. Read more

The Human Lessons: They Lie at the Core of Reporting in Iran

By Laura Secor• International Journalism• June 15, 2009

‘When we work in countries without press freedoms, we scarcely know the pressures on the people we encounter, the complexities of their motivations, the dimensions of their fears.’ Read more

Iran: News Happens, But Fewer Journalists Are There to Report It

By Mark Seibel• International Journalism• June 15, 2009

In a time of global engagement—economic, political, environmental, energy and health, to name a few—budget cuts at news organizations severely limit foreign news coverage. Read more

When the Predictable Overtakes the Real News About Iran

By Scheherezade Faramarzi• International Journalism• June 12, 2009

‘What makes news in the West are Iran’s "menacing" actions in Iraq or words against Israel, with such stories told in a similar narrative, encased in little context and with a shortage of evidence.’ Read more

Web and Iran: Digital Dialogue

Attempting to Silence Iran’s ‘Weblogistan’

By Mohamed Abdel Dayem• International Journalism• June 12, 2009

‘Iran’s filtering and blocking regime has been described by various experts as second only to China’s.’ Read more

Blogging in Iran

International Journalism• June 15, 2009

September 2001 – First Iranian blog appears on the Internet. November 2001 – Blogger Hossein Derakhshan develops a step-by-step guide to blogging in Farsi. RELATED ARTICLE “Attempting to Silence Iran’s ‘Weblogistan’” … Read more

Publishing and Mapping Iran’s Weblogistan

By Melissa Ludtke• International Journalism• June 12, 2009

Iran’s home page on the Global Voices Web site. RELATED ARTICLE “Attempting to Silence Iran’s ‘Weblogistan’” – Mohamed Abdel DayemHarvard University’s Berkman … Read more

The Virtual Iran Beat

By Kelly Golnoush Niknejad• International Journalism• June 12, 2009

‘Speaking Farsi helps expand our ability to gather news. It means we can tap into a more extensive network and speak to more Iranians, even if we’re not based in Tehran.’ Read more

21st Century Muckrakers

Winter 2003: Words & Reflections Introduction

By Melissa Ludtke• Opinion• December 15, 2003

As the Unites States’s military engagement continues in Iraq, dissent at home increases and news organizations wrestle with how to report on it, writes former CBS and NBC News correspondent, Marvin Kalb, now a senior fellow at the Shorenstein … Read more

The Challenges and Opportunities of 21st Century Muckraking

By Mark Feldstein• 21st Century Muckrakers• June 15, 2009

The articles about public health, safety and trust in this issue of Nieman Reports are a reminder of the essential role that watchdog reporting plays in our lives. Contemporary exposés of tainted overseas drugs and toys, like recent reports about contaminated meat and produce at domestic grocery chains and fast-food restaurants, trace their origins to America’s early muckrakers. Read more

Nieman Reports

Summer 2009

Iran: Can Its Stories Be Told?

Iran: Can Its Stories Be Told?

Treatment of Journalists

Women Reporters, Women's Stories

Views from the West

Web and Iran: Digital Dialogue

21st Century Muckrakers

Nieman Notes

By Jim Boyd

Curato'rs Corner

By Bob Giles

Words & Reflections

By John H. McManus

By John Schmalzbauer

By Sandi Dolbee

By Mark Silk

By Matt Beynon Rees

By Rosita Boland

By Graciela Mochkofsky

By Danny Schechter

By Adam Reilly

By Nina Berman