Thanh Tan of The Texas Tribune headlines this year’s NJC scholarship reception

Thanh Tan is the keynote speaker for this year’s Northwest Journalists of Color awards reception, which will be June 7 at KING TV.

Get your free tickets at EventBrite!

The reception, which marks the 25th anniversary of AAJA Seattle’s flagship program, brings Thanh Tan from Austin, Texas, to share her experiences with this year’s scholarship winners.

Tan, a three-time NJC scholarship winner, is a multimedia reporter/producer for The Texas Tribune.

She previously worked at Idaho Public Television, a PBS station that serves a statewide audience.

While there, she was an Emmy award-winning producer/reporter/host for the longest-running legislative public affairs program in the West, Idaho Reports, moderator of The Idaho Debates, and a writer/producer for the flagship series Outdoor Idaho.

Prior to joining IdahoPTV, she was a general assignment reporter at the ABC affiliate in Portland, OR and a political reporter for KBCI-TV in Boise, ID. Her work has also appeared on the PBS NewsHour and This American Life.

She graduated with honors from the University of Southern California with degrees in International Relations and Broadcast Journalism.

Dorothy Parvaz is free!

UPDATE (May 20): Dorothy arrived in B.C. yesterday. Here’s a photo captured by the CBC of her hugging her family as she arrived at the airport. In an interview broadcast by Al Jazeera and reported on by The Guardian, Dorothy talks about harsh conditions in the Syrian jail where she was held for three days — in marked contrast to her detention in Iran.

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Dorothy Parvaz, the Al Jazeera journalist who disappeared on April 29, has been freed. She’s in Doha, Qatar, and plans to return home to British Columbia later this week.

Check out the stories posted by Seattle Times and Seattle P-I.

Thanks to all of you who Liked the Free Dorothy page on Facebook, contacted your elected leaders and the embassies, and showed your support in numerous other ways.

For those who have been following this story from the beginning, it’s taken some twists.

If there’s one thing I’ve observed from this episode, it’s this: Journalists will move heaven and earth when their colleagues are in danger and when the principles of press freedom we hold dear are at stake.

Within hours of the news of Dorothy’s disappearance, journalists in Seattle sprang into action. Campaigns on Twitter and Facebook launched. AAJA called for Dorothy’s release on May 3. At that time, Syria was believed to be holding Dorothy since her disappearance in Damascus on April 29.

Journalism colleagues in Seattle, Vancouver, Boston, Doha, D.C. and elsewhere met in coffeeshops, newsrooms and cyberspace to talk about Dorothy and what her disappearance meant to them. Later, we learned that Syria deported Dorothy to Iran on May 1. The Free Dorothy campaign had to switch gears and focus on Iran.

And today, 19 days since she disappeared, Dorothy is back in contact with her family and free! We look forward to seeing her again in Seattle some day soon and hearing her story.

Free Dorothy on Friday on Twitter, Facebook

UPDATE: Please download this new Free Dorothy banner, which Wendy Wahman designed and updated to reflect the news that Dorothy was deported from Syria to Iran.

You can help raise awareness by swapping this image with your Facebook and Twitter profile pic every Friday — marking another week since Dorothy disappeared.

Please tell your friends and family to do the same. The wider this message spreads, the sooner we’ll find her.

You can also send friends a direct link to this image: http://www.aajaseattle.org/FreeDorothy_Iran.jpg

Be sure to Like the Free Dorothy Parvaz Facebook page and to follow her on Twitter @FreeDorothy.

If you’d like to sign a petition calling on the UN to work for Dorothy’s release, check out the Human Rights Petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/find-and-free-dorothy-parvaz-missing-journalist

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Kristen Young, a friend of Dorothy and former colleague at The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is spearheading press and public diplomacy efforts in the US to free Dorothy. She wrote the press release below.

By Kristen Young

Dorothy Parvaz – a citizen of the U.S., Canada and Iran and a former editorial writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer – has been detained since Friday, April 29, when she boarded a plane from Doha, Qatar, to Damascus, Syria, on a reporting assignment for her current employer, Al Jazeera English.

She hasn’t been heard from since.

The Syrian government said Dorothy was sent to Iran on May 1 under the control of the Iranian authorities, but we’ve had no word from Iran as to whether that is true. We are unsure of who has her. We continue to hope she is being treated with dignity and respect, especially considering that she is a citizen of Iran.  Most of all, her family and loved ones need to know she is safe.  We believe that Syria maliciously sent Dorothy to Iran and, in so doing, violated international law.

“We miss her, we haven’t heard from her since April 29, we have no idea where she’s being held and who has her, and we want her home,” Dorothy’s fiancé Todd Barker said. “She’s a journalist who was just trying to do her job.”

Hundreds of articles, radio and TV segments, and blog posts have focused attention on her detainment. The U.S. State Department is working on freeing Dorothy, but we’d like for her case to remain a focus of diplomatic engagement by the U.S., Canadian and Iranian governments.  On May 2 – the day after Syrian authorities claimed Parvaz was sent to Iran — the Iranian foreign minister said at a news conference that Iran wanted the Syrians to look into the matter. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi also indicated that he did not know about Syria detaining Parvaz, or about Syria deporting her.

“I hope that it is not true, but if that is the case, then we demand the government of Syria to look into this,” Salehi said in response to a question on what Iran would undertake to secure Parvaz’s release. We hope that Salehi now focuses his attention on Syria’s claims that Parvaz was sent to Tehran.

Supporters worldwide have visited and “liked” the Free Dorothy Parvaz Facebook page, which already has more than 12,000 members. Thousands of Twitter messages have demanded her freedom at #FreeDorothy.

Harvard University’s Nieman FoundationandWolfson College Cambridge, where Dorothy held journalism fellowships, released statements lauding her reporting skills, affirming the rights of journalists and calling for her release.  Venerable news organizations and bloggers from around the world are spotlighting Dorothy’s detention. Al Jazeera English, The Seattle Times, The Globe and Mail, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Press Institute, Reporters Without Borders and many other international organizations first demanded her release from Syrian custody – now, they are pushing for Iran to find her and free her.

Could you encourage other news sources and relevant institutions to do the same? Can you ask your political representatives to join U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Representatives Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott and Rick Larsen (D-WA) in supporting the effort to free Dorothy?  Please scroll to the bottom of this message to see relevant embassy and governmental contact information for supporters in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

Your participation is crucial.  Her family and loved ones cannot rest until she is known to be safe – and home.

Dorothy is a global citizen.  She grew up in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Canada.  She studied at the University of British Columbia and earned her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Arizona before joining the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.  She was awarded fellowships at Harvard and Cambridge before being hired by Al Jazeera English online.

Dorothy has dedicated her life to telling stories. She views journalism as a force for good.

Please write to me at k@kristenmyoung.com or call me at 206-795-7771 if you have any questions. Thank you for any action that you contemplate taking. Please keep her in your thoughts.

With deep gratitude,

Kristen

U.S. Supporters:

Please email and call the White House (visit www.whitehouse.gov/contact;202-456-1111) and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (http://bit.ly/kQO31Z; 202-647-6575)to politely press for Dorothy’s release.

Canadian supporters:

Please contact the Embassy of Canada to Iran in Tehran
Dennis Horak
Chargé d’Affaires

Tel.: 98 (21) 8152-0000
Fax: 98 (21) 8873-3200
Email:teran@international.gc.ca

Canadians can call the Iranian embassy in Ottawa at 613-235-4726 and leave a polite message for Mr. Kambiz Sheikh-Hassani, Chargé d’Affaires, respectfully asking that Dorothy, an U.S., Canadian and Iranian citizen, be found and released.
245 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2K2
TEL (613) 235-4726
FAX (613) 232-5712
e-mail: iranemb@salamiran.org
web: www.salamiran.org

#FreeDorothy Call the #Iran embassy in Ottawa: 613-235-4726 PLS RT #Canada

@PMHarper Call Iranian ambassador, demand release of journalist Dorothy Parvaz #freedorothy.

@AndrewSaxton1 Your constituent Fred Parvaz wants Iran to free his daughter. What is ur govt doing? #freedorothy

Irish, English, Scottish supporters:

Please contact the Iranian Embassy in London consulate@iran-embassy.org.uk or info@iran-embassy.org.ukEmbassy and the Consulate switchboard: 020 7225 3000

June 7: Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship reception

SAVE THE DATE!

On June 7, KING will host AAJA Seattle’s Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship reception. Mark your calendars now.

Each year the scholarship recognizes talented young incoming and existing college students from Washington state who have their sights set on a career in journalism. AAJA Seattle has awarded scholarships to more than 120 students, who have gone on to work for The Seattle Times, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News and Sony Pictures, among other places.

SPJ continuing education series – final spring workshop on May 9

Beyond Google: Exploring the Visible and Invisible Web
MONDAY, MAY 9, 7 p.m., Seattle Times Auditorium
Sponsored by the Western Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Free for SPJ and AAJA members, $10 for non-members. Free pizza included!

Go beyond Google searches and learn to get the most from the Web. This session will cover what reporters, editors and students need to know. From better search techniques to delving into the deep, invisible Web, how to find documents or background people on deadline, track historic content and where to find reliable sites for enterprise stories. The craft of better searching and not wasting time.

Presenter:

• Cheryl Phillips, Seattle Times data enterprise editor and former president of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
• Alex Johnson, reporter, msnbc.com

The Seattle Times is located at 1120 John St., Seattle, WA  98109. Free parking is available in the visitor’s lot across the street.

Please RSVP to Hilary Reeves, hilary.j.reeves@gmail.com prior to the class.

See you there!