BOARD OF DIRECTORS
 
Arnold Amber
The Newspaper Guild
President
 
Mori Abdolalian
CJFE Journalists in Exile
 
Alison Armstrong
Journalist/writer
 
Bob Carty
CBC-Radio "The Sunday Edition"
 
Havoc Franklin
CBC Radio
 
Peter Jacobsen
Bersenas Jacobsen Chouest Thomson Blackburn LLP
 
Alice Klein
Now Magazine
 
Donald Livingstone
Promeus
 
Anita Mielewczyk
Journalist/Law Student
 
John Norris
Criminal Law Lawyer
 
Mary Deanne Shears
Journalist

Kelly Toughill
King's College School of Journalism
 
Anna Maria Tremonti
CBC Radio "The Current"
 
Philip Tunley
Lawyer, Stockwoods LLP
 

Media Release

Canadian Journalists Presents: Our Future Society Will be A Free Society

Toronto, March 3, 2010 - On Friday, March 5, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) presents Maziar Bahari making his first public appearance in Canada since his release from an Iranian prison in October 2009. He will be interviewed by Toronto Star Columnist and Deputy Editorial Page Editor Martin Regg Cohn.

The event is being presented in collaboration with Toronto Initiative for Iranian Studies, Iranian Association at the University of Toronto (IAUT) and Campaign (Cycling) for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). The March 5 event is part of CJFE's participation in an international campaign to free writers and journalists still imprisoned in Iran. More information about the campaign can be found here.

Maziar Bahari WHO:

  • Maziar Bahari is an Iranian-Canadian playwright, film-maker, and journalist. Bahari graduated with a degree in communications from Concordia University. He has produced a number of documentaries and news reports for Channel 4 and BBC on subjects as varied as Ayatollah Sistani, Muqtada al-Sadr and human rights in Iraq. In 1998, Bahari became Newsweek magazine's Iran correspondent. During the 2009 Iranian election protests he was arrested without charge, and detained. He was coerced into a televised confession acknowledging Western journalists as spies. Bahari was held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison in Iran where he was interrogated daily. After 118 days in jail, Bahari was released on bail on October 20, 2009. His arrest and detention reported around the world.

  • Interviewer: Martin Regg Cohn is Deputy Editorial Page Editor. A foreign correspondent for 11 years, he was Chief of the Star's Middle East and Asia bureaus and most recently Foreign Editor. He has reported from more than 40 countries, ranging from Afghanistan to North Korea and Sudan. His column appears Tuesdays.

    • WHEN: Friday, March 5 2010/ Doors open at: 5:30pm Starts: 6:00 p.m.

    WHERE: The Blue Room (1105), Sanford Fleming Building, U of T.,
    10 Kings's College Road, Toronto

    TICKETS & INFO: Seating is general admission; suggested donation of $5 at the door. -30-

    For more information please contact:

    Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) is an association of more than 300 journalists, editors, publishers, producers, students and others who work to promote and defend free expression and press freedom in Canada and abroad.

    www.cjfe.org

    For more information, contact CJFE Manager, Julie Payne at (416) 515-9622 x. 226