More than 100 days pass since the two Iranian documentarians were kidnapped by the aggressive U.S.- British forces in the Karbala region north of Baghdad, Iraq.

Saeid Aboutaleb, Soheil Karimi, their interpreter and driver headed for Iraq on June 12, 2003. They had been dispatched to the region legally by the Channel 2 of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) to film a documentary on the lives of Iraqis under the occupation.

The Iranian documentarians were arrested on July 1 by U.S.-led forces while news of their detention spread not sooner than July 8.

Although the Iranian reporters carried official and valid visas, the U.S. interventionist forces kidnapped them apparently in a bid to pressure Iran and seek ransom for their release.

It is clear that the shameful act of hostage-taking is in sheer contrast to the international laws and regulations and contradicts the Article 19 of the Geneva conventions. The article clearly stresses on the freedom of reporters in covering various events all over the world and precludes the conflicting states from mistreating them.

It seems that the U.S. forces’ measure in kidnapping and detaining the two Iranian T.V filmmakers is only justified in the framework of the covering and hiding their criminal acts against the Iraqi people during their occupation of the country.

However, what it is strange in this regard is the fact that in spite of the popular protests to the detention of the two reporters, and the overwhelming nationwide demand for their release, the world community and organization such as the Reporters without Frontier and the United Nations Human Rights Committee have not done any noticeable effort in this regard. This, once again proves that the non governmental organizations that claim to be the advocates of defending the world’s oppressed people are influenced and dictated by the world powers. Apparently, they are ignoring the humanistic aspects of many of the world issues.

Moreover, the issue of arresting the two Iranian reporters by the U.S. –led occupying forces in Iraq is directly related to Iran’s national security and political destiny. Because, by the measure, the U.S. - British forces in Iraq follow particular political objectives with regard to Iran and the region.

As a matter of fact, the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been sensitive toward the fate of all its nationals within the country or outside. Iran has seriously attempted to discover information about the documentarians through various channels soon after news of their detention spread and appropriate diplomatic measures were taken toward the issue in Tehran and Baghdad.

Although the Iranian Foreign Ministry has presented the issue a number of times to the British and Swedish ambassadors in Tehran asking for their help and, the foreign minister has followed up the case seriously through consultations with his British counterpart, no tangible result has yet been achieved.

The efforts have so far only led to locating the whereabouts of their detention and have also helped the intervention of the Red Cross into the issue.

It is crystal clear that, the first main U.S. aim in kidnapping the Iranian reporters is to put more pressure on Iran in a bid to continue its criminal interventionist measures in Iraq.

However, boosting the domestic support through a strong national determination and the establishment of a follow- up headquarter aimed at releasing the two Iranian documentarian Saeid Aboutaleb and Soheil Karimi seem very necessary. In this regard, the role played by the media is very crucial too.

Given the situation, it is incumbent upon political parties and the non governmental organizations to embark on a comprehensive campaign to follow up the trend of developments which would eventually result in the freedom of the Iranian captive reporters.