In an essay for Columbia Journalism Review, writer Jordan Michael Smith says the capture of U.S. diplomats by Iranian students 30 years ago this week had “pernicious” effects on the U.S. public’s attitude on Iran. read more »

A longtime friend of Beverley Giesbrecht, who was abducted in northwest Pakistan last November, says he’s received calls from her kidnappers demanding ransom, and he fears she will die before a settlement is reached, the Canadian Press (CP) reports. read more »

Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, arrested last June after disputed elections, was released after paying a bail of about $300,000. He has arrived in London to join his wife, who is expecting the couple's first child next week, the magazine reports.

Tehran didn't explain the reasons behind the release, but "humanitarian considerations were presumed to have played a role in the decision," Newsweek says. read more »

The escape last June of NYT correspondent David Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahir Luddin from a Taliban compound in Pakistan came as a surprise to all but their media colleagues who had suppressed the story. Rohde has produced a five-part multimedia series, Held by the Taliban, which narrates his ordeal. read more »

Reporter John Goddard details a deteriorating relationship between the media and the Department of Foreign Affairs in a Canadian Journalism Project report. read more »

The Globe and Mail is publishing a six-part multimedia series this week about women’s lives in Kandahar, a conservative southern city. Uncertain security, combined with cultural customs that keep most women from talking with journalists, posed a major reporting challenge, the team says. read more »

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has assured her Canadian counterpart of Washington’s “full support” in calling on Tehran to release Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, the Newsweek reporter who was arrested in June after covering the elections, Canwest News Service reports. read more »

The excitement over British journalist Stephen Farrell’s release quickly mixed with grief and anger about the killings of his Afghan interpreter, Sultan Munadi; a British special forces commando, Corporal John Harrison; and a woman and child. read more »

New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell and his interpreter, Sultan Munadi, were kidnapped in northern Afghanistan on Saturday while reporting in a village about NATO air strikes. Farrell was freed early Wednesday in a commando raid by soldiers that involved an intense firefight with his captors, but Munadi along with a British commando and an Afghan woman were killed by gunfire during the raid, the newspaper reports. read more »

After their release from North Korean prison last month and their return to the United States, TV producers Laura Ling and Euna Lee described their ordeal in a story posted in the website of their employer, Current TV. read more »

Former President Bill Clinton traveled Tuesday to North Korea to ask for the release of two jailed U.S. journalists in North Korea. According to the North Korean state media, the journalists have been granted special pardons by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, BBC reports. read more »

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has urged the North Korean government to grant “amnesty” to Euna Lee and Laura Ling, dropping previous demands that they be released on humanitarian grounds, the Washington Post reports. read more »

Veteran U.S. journalist John Dinges, returning from Venezuela and Chile, was closely questioned by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about where he went and whom he talked to on the trip, Jeff Stein blogs for Spytalk. read more »

Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari was among the hundreds of people arrested after clashes in the streets of Tehran, the magazine reports. Bahari, who has covered Iran for more than a decade, is a documentary filmmaker and playwright who is well known in Iran. read more »

Tahir Ludin, the Afghan reporter kidnapped for more than seven months along with David Rohde of The New York Times, says their escape Saturday from a Taliban compound was a desperate attempt to save their lives after the pair was threatened with death, The NYT reports. read more »

David Rohde and a local Iraqi journalist, abducted last November while researching a book, climbed over the wall of the compound where they were being held in Pakistan and made their way to freedom, The Times reports.

The pair and their driver, who did not escape, were kidnapped last November outside Kabul, Afghanistan. read more »

Whether you love Twitter or hate it, or still haven’t tried it, this was the week when it tweeted most loudly into the international public spotlight. read more »

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested in North Korea in March while covering the plight of defectors living along the China-North Korea border, were found guilty of “hostile acts" and illegal entry into the communist country. They were both sentenced to 12 years hard labor in prison, CNN International and the BBC report. read more »

North Korea had released no information as of Friday afternoon (June 5) about the fate of two U.S. journalists who were supposed to go on trial a day earlier, The Associated Press reports. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were to go on trial for charges that they entered the country illegally and engaged in "hostile acts" — allegations that could lead to a 10-year sentence in a labor camp. read more »

After nearly three months of holding their silence, the families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee are publicly lobbying for the release of the two journalists who are scheduled to go on trial this Thursday (June 4) on espionage charges, CNN International reports. read more »