by Sasha Uzunov

News has come that Canadian-Iranian film maker and journalist Maziar Bahari has been detained by the Iranian authorities.

“In a statement, Newsweek said that “on Sunday morning in Tehran, Newsweek’s Maziar Bahari was detained without charge by Iranian authorities and has not been heard from since.”

“Mr. Bahari is a Canadian citizen and a renowned journalist and filmmaker, who has been living in and covering Iran for the past decade.” “

I briefly met Bahari in Turkey in 2005 as a photographer working for Canadian journalist Scott Taylor, who was held hostage in Iraq in 2004. I followed Taylor and cameraman Stefan Nitoslawski into Talafar, Iraq to retrace Taylor’s steps for a documentary by Bahari .

“In fact, Bahari directed a 2005 documentary film on the effects the killing and kidnapping of journalists was having on reporting in war-torn Iraq.

“Peter Svatek, who produced the film “Targets: Reporters in Iraq” with him, described Bahari as quiet, serious and cautious.

“In the documentary, Bahari interviews people like fellow Canadian journalist Scott Taylor, who was kidnapped and held for five days by insurgents in northern Iraq.”

Book excerpt: ‘Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting’
by Scott Taylor Updated: Fri. Feb. 27 2009 8:14 AM ET

Among the Mujahedeen

Sasha Uzunov had agreed to accompany me on this trip, and Stefan Nitoslawski was filming the entire venture for a cbc documentary entitled Targets: Reporters in Iraq. I had already signed a contract and begun participating in Targets before receiving the call from Dangerfield. The producers had wanted me to venture to Iraq on my own for the movie, but after two sleepless nights of anxiety at the prospect I told them I could not do it. I was prepared to travel right up to the border but not beyond it. The offer of flying in by helicopter changed all that.

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