Journalists Honored for Courageous Work; Imagine a World
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight: where lies rule and the truth seekers under attack. We focus on the unprecedented war on journalists, from terrorism to censorship and oppression, stories of courage from the front lines. Plus: Havana calling as pressure grows on the United States to lift its half-century embargo against Cuba.</s>AMANPOUR: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. I'm Christiane Amanpour. As journalists, our job is to give the public an accurate picture of the world as it is, no matter the danger, and to hold those in power to account for their actions. My beleaguered guest tonight says that he is always guided by what the late Czech dissident turned president, Vaclav Havel used to say, that in a society where lies rule, every piece of truth becomes opposition. But this year, more than ever, the duty to pursue that truth has put journalists in the line of fire. In danger of kidnap and execution, in Syria and Iraq and under threat of repression and arrest from governments of all kinds around the world. James Foley was the first journalist this year to be killed by the brutal executioners of ISIS for simply seeking the truth of the desperate situation in Syria. In New York this week, his parents, Diane and John, received a standing ovation at the annual gala of the Committee to Protect Journalists as they honored their son for his sacrifice. According to the CPJ's own tally, 42 journalists have been killed this year alone. And 211 were jailed over the past year. Earlier, I spoke to two courageous journalists, whose search for truth has led to danger and sacrifice. The Iranian, Siamak Ghaderi, has only just been released from prison after serving four years and 60 lashes for, quote, "creating public anxiety." His real crime? Reporting on the controversial 2009 Iranian election and exposing one of the lies of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed that Iran has no homosexuals. I also spoke to Mikhail Zygar, who, in the face of draconian laws and intimidation, and the heavy hand of the Russian state sanctioned propaganda, is struggling every day to keep Russia's only independent television on the air.</s>AMANPOUR: Gentlemen, thank you both for joining me. Congratulations to both of you on winning these prestigious awards. How difficult is it in a nutshell to work as a journalist in Russia today, as an independent journalist?</s>MIKHAIL ZYGAR, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, TV RAIN: The biggest challenge for Russian journalists is a financial pressure, probably authorities are trying to affect independent journalism with.</s>AMANPOUR: By trying to get you off the air by putting financial burdens on?</s>ZYGAR: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: Is that's what's happening to Doge (ph) TV, RAIN TV, your channel?</s>ZYGAR: Absolutely. We have no problems with any kind of official authorities. We have problem with the owner of our studio, who is -- who has already managed to force us out. And we are now working in temporary studio and I don't know how long we'll be able to work there. And we have a problem with a new law that bans us from having any advertising from the new year.</s>AMANPOUR: So this new law bans you from having advertising. It also bans many external television stations, like CNN and others. What is that going to mean for diversity of opinion in Russia? Doesn't it narrow the bandwidth for journalism there? Isn't it all state run?</s>ZYGAR: Unfortunately it's already very narrow. And imagine that seems like if you have, for example, 10 or 15 TV channels in the United States and all of them were just like past years, very passionate, very full of hatred, but that's just the same version of the -- of the coverage.</s>AMANPOUR: Let me turn to you, Siamak. Mikhail is talking about a lot of financial pressure against independent journalists in Russia. You, though, were sent to jail.</s>SIAMAK GHADERI, CPJ (through translator): We do have financial pressures and financial issues in Iran as well. But unfortunately, what they demand from us as journalists in Iran is, in a way, for us to align ourselves with the general and overall politics and ideology and politics of the regime and the government.</s>AMANPOUR: Can you tell me, Siamak, what it was that got you in trouble and that got you a sentence of four years in jail -- and I think 60 or 80 lashes?</s>GHADERI (through translator): I also was punished for participating in the protests in the country. And I also wrote a piece about homosexuals in Iran and that's why I was convicted to be lashed 60 times.</s>AMANPOUR: And what was it that you wrote about Iranian gays? Because we all remember and will play a little bit of the sound bite by President Ahmadinejad.</s>MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, FORMER IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country.</s>AHMADINEJAD (through translator): We don't have that in our country.</s>GHADERI (through translator): But of course this was a certain lie, the same agency that I was working for, IRNA, had had actually reported on the issue of homosexuals in Iran and Mr. Ahmadinejad certainly had access to these reports. What I wrote is that because of social pressures that you put on homosexuals, you may not see them in the real world; however, you cannot make them disappear from the virtual world and they're active there.</s>AMANPOUR: Is it possible to practice honest journalism in Iran today?</s>GHADERI (through translator): The Iranian journalists are active and they are writing; however, they pay a price for their activities. And a big part of journalism today actually happens behind bars and in prisons.</s>AMANPOUR: Mikhail, let me turn to you. What was it that started getting you into trouble?</s>ZYGAR: The real reason was that we always tried to be more or less normalty (sic) channel. We never tried to become opposition one and to be -- attack Putin --</s>AMANPOUR: So you're not the opposition, the voice of the opposition?</s>ZYGAR: No. We've always tried to be neutral and to give floor to representatives of all points of view and have as well pro-Putin, united Russia party or his opponents from all of the specter (sic) --</s>AMANPOUR: So then why do they want to close you down?</s>ZYGAR: Probably we touched those topics which are not frequent on state- run TV channels.</s>AMANPOUR: Like?</s>ZYGAR: Like anti-corruption investigations performed by alty (ph) channel. We know that many people even in Kremlin think that we do very important job for Russian civil society. But some of them probably were infuriated by our coverage of Ukrainian revolution and, for instance, this year we are -- we happen to be the only TV channel to work both in Kiev and Donetsk and to have journalists in both areas, in Kiev and Donetsk. And we are criticized from both sides, from Russian side, because we are blamed to be pro-Ukrainian. And in Ukraine, we are blamed to be pro-Putin. That means that we're doing something right, probably. But that makes our life a bit more difficult.</s>AMANPOUR: Can you still continue to work, especially after being here in the United States, after being awarded -- is this attention good for you? Or does it make it more dangerous for you?</s>ZYGAR: First of all, Russian society's poisoned with anti-Americanism and that's a huge problem for Russia because, for instance, couple of years ago, when we saw huge mass protest rallies in Moscow, we had a sense that the Russian civil society wants its rights, wants free election. But now it seems like the agenda is different. Now thanks to state propaganda, people are more obsessed with some external enemy. Many people really believe that all the problems that we have are not because of wrong policy of our government. Our problem is because of new Cold War, because of American conspiracy. And that's why we really need to fight this perception, to fight this idea of new Cold War and this conspiracy, because that threatens us.</s>AMANPOUR: What was the worst thing about being in prison?</s>GHADERI (through translator): In the prisons of the Islamic republic, all the rights of the individual, from this state and from the time that they are accused until they are actually given a verdict is ignored. And this, on its own, is torture. In the precinct of the intelligence ministry, I was held there for nine months with my eyes closed. They had wrapped something about my eyes. And that was a very, very bad experience for me. They also shoved my head into a toilet and they beat me up. That also happened.</s>AMANPOUR: It's a very, very tough price that many of you pay for trying to tell the truth. Siamak Ghaderi, thank you very much for being with us. And Mikhail Zygar, thank you very much indeed.</s>AMANPOUR: Another nation that faces constant criticism for oppressing the free press and any sort of political opposition is Cuba, with 19 journalists forced into exile since 2008. But is one way to encourage change and openness on that island lifting the 50-year U.S. economic embargo? The powerful "New York Times" thinks so. And it's waging a campaign to persuade Congress. We ask why -- next.