Maziar Bahari

Iranian-Canadian journalist and documentary filmmaker Maziar Bahari was arrested in Tehran while reporting on the 2009 presidential election protests and held in solitary confinement for most of his 118 days in captivity. He was accused of “masterminding the coverage of the Iranian election by the Western media” and being a spy for the Mossad, the MI6, and the CIA.

Soon after protests erupted over charges that President Ahmadinejad had stolen the vote, he was picked up by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and sent to Evin Prison, which is notorious for torturing political prisoners. He was repeatedly beaten and forced to give a false televised confession. After international pressure mounted and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed interest in his case, he was released on $300,000 bail.

Bahari's riveting memoir, Rosewater: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival, was published by Random House in June 2011. Directed by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, Rosewater, a film adaptaion of Bahari's story, premiered in September of 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Variety called it “a stirring account of human endurance and a topical reminder of the risks faced by journalists in pursuit of the truth.”

"What happened to me,” says Bahari, “really symbolizes something bigger than me. I was maybe unlucky to be able to explore some of the darkest sides of the Iranian government, the revolutionary zeal, and the corruption. But I was lucky to be able to come out and talk about it." An Iranian court sentenced Bahari in absentia to an extended flogging and more than 13 years in prison on various charges including conspiring against national security and insulting the supreme religious leader.

His documentary films include "And Along Came a Spider;" "Of Shames and Coffins;" "Targets: Reporters in Iraq;" and "The Fall of a Shah." The International Documentary Film Festival organized a retrospective of his films; he was honored by the ILEX Foundation for Excellence in Iranian Cinema. His most recent film is Iranian Odyssey.

Bahari was a correspondent for Newsweek for over 10 years, covering Iranian economic, political and cultural life. His own story of resilience in the face of repression became the subject of a 60 Minutes segment and a Newsweek cover story. He has appeared on Fareed Zakaria GPS, The Daily Show, BBC, and Charlie Rose. He currently runs Journalism for Change a platform that showcases best practices, forges new networks, and provides a new outlet for citizen journalists.