Union members urged to pressure Syria
to release Canadian journalist
The Newspaper Guild and CWA Canada are urging members to put pressure on Syria to release a Canadian journalist seized a week ago when she attempted to enter the country to cover anti-government protests.
Dorothy Parvaz, 39, who has an Iranian passport, planned to use it to enter the country because it doesn't require a visa. The journalist, who also holds Canadian and American citizenship, was one of very few foreign reporters attempting to enter Syria to cover the popular uprising that began in March.
Syrian authorities, who confirmed they took Parvaz into custody when her plane touched down in Damascus, have barred media from reporting on the violent repression of demonstrations in several cities.
Bernie Lunzer, TNG-CWA president, said in an email message to members Friday that Parvaz, a celebrated feature writer and columnist, was a Guild activist when she worked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer until its closure in 2009. She now works for al-Jazeera, which dispatched her to Syria to cover the uprisings.
Guild members are urged to join the Facebook group Free Dorothy Parvaz and to call (613-569- 5556) or send email messages to the Syrian Embassy in Ottawa (ambassador@syrianembassy.ca) to politely press for Parvaz's release.
Sample message: My name is (... ) and I am writing to urge the Syrian government to release Al Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz. Her friends and colleagues were reassured to hear that she is being treated well, but ask that she be freed as soon as possible.
Parvaz's family has gathered at her parents' home in North Vancouver to press for her release.
"We're incredibly concerned about Dorothy," her fiancé, Todd Baker, toldThe Globe And Mailin a telephone interview Thursday. "Nobody's talked to Dorothy in a week. It's very alarming."
Although Ms. Parvaz spent most her distinguished career in the United States, her roots in Canada run deep, the Globe reported. Her father, Fred, is a physics teacher at Capilano University in British Columbia.
Ms. Parvaz was born in Iran and lived there with her grandmother through the 1979 Iranian Revolution. She subsequently moved to the United Arab Emirates to live with her father, her stepmother and her sister.
When Ms. Parvaz was 12, the family moved to British Columbia where she attended high school, and later earned an undergraduate degree in English literature at the University of British Columbia, before completing a masters of journalism at the University of Arizona.
