2009 Nieman fellow Dorothy Parvaz detained: the scoop so far and what you can do

[UPDATE: Good news! Iran has allowed Dorothy to return to Qatar. For more information, read our post on Dorothy's release.]

At a Nieman Foundation gathering over the weekend in Cambridge, a decade’s worth of current and former fellows joined with foundation staff to celebrate the tenure of departing Nieman curator Bob Giles. While journalists from around the globe roasted and toasted Giles, someone not in the room was very much on attendees’ minds.

Journalist Dorothy Parvaz, a 2009 Nieman fellow who is an American, Canadian and Iranian citizen, flew into Damascus on April 29 and has not been heard from since. Al Jazeera is reporting that Syria has deported Dorothy to Iran. (During her fellowship year, Dorothy’s Seattle newspaper closed its print side, and in 2010 she began reporting for Al Jazeera English from Doha, Qatar.)

The Nieman Foundation has called on Iran to release Dorothy immediately. Please “like” the Free Dorothy Parvaz page on Facebook and follow @FreeDorothy on Twitter to draw global attention to her plight and encourage those detaining her to let her return to her family.

For more by or about Dorothy, read her latest features for Al Jazeera, an Associated Press piece about her detention, a story of a London visit with a Seattle friend, and thoughts on Dorothy from her Nieman classmates, The Irish Times’ Rosita Boland and The Charlotte Observer’s Tommy Tomlinson.