Iran and the Press

Nazila Fathi covered events in her native Iran for years as The New York Times correspondent. She has a new book, The Lonely War: One Woman's Account Of The Struggle For Modern Iran. The criteria for approved news and information in Iran is retrospective, that is you can publish whatever you want but, if it crosses some unknown line, the government will come after you. She covered the 2009 demonstrations for the Times despite warnings from the authorities. One day, a government source told her that the authorities had given her photo to snipers who were believed to be shooting the protesters. Soon after, intelligence officials appeared on the street outside her apartment.
Fearing arrest, she remained in her apartment until she and her husband, along with their two small children, left for the Tehran airport in the middle of the night and took a flight out of the country.