LA Times looks into the lives of imprisoned American journalists

Posted at 4:40 PM Jun 10, 2009

By Andrea Grimes

Just as we were getting over the return of Roxana Saberi from her Iran imprisonment came the news of the arrest and sentencing of two American journalists in North Korea. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were accused of spying and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp. Today, the LA Times looks into the lives of the imprisoned reporters with stories about their dedication to their jobs.

What hasn't been mentioned terribly often is that Ling and Lee work for CurrentTV (yes, the folks who bring you Target: Women.) This means they're straddling the grassroots/institutional journalism divide, working to produce stories that aren't covered anywhere else. The fact that North Korea saw something threatening in these two non-mainstream reporters is frightening and disturbing to say the least. Both women were described as consummate professionals. Which you'd probably have to be if you have the guts to pack up and report on North Korea:

Derrick Shore was nervous when he traveled with Laura Ling to Sao Paulo, Brazil's shantytowns several years ago.

Both worked for Channel One, a news network for young adults, and were reporting on the dangerous slums for a series on urbanization. Shore said he was the panicked reporter and Ling the calm producer -- though he is considerably bigger and perhaps better able to defend himself.

Euna Lee is more filmmaker and editor than reporter, but she's been thrust into the spotlight from her usual behind-the-scenes space:

Lee, the mother of a 4-year-old daughter, is an uncommonly kind and caring person, current and former colleagues said.

"She's one of those people who's the unsung hero, makes sure the work gets done -- she was working to help out the team when she went to China because she was the only person on the team who spoke Korean," Beckmann said. "And I think that's really indicative of the kind of person she is." ...

The trip to China was Lee's first foray into overseas work. Though she was an editor and not a reporter, Lee, who was raised in South Korea, brought knowledge about that country, as well as language skills, to the team.

There are some things we can all do to help--here's a list, courtesy of Free Roxana Saberi. It contains, strangely enough, a letter-to-your-rep template written by, of all people, Star Jones. Uh?

Here's an example of the kind of gutsy, dangerous work Ling does--we should all be thankful there are journalists out there braving this kind of terrain: