Journalist Roxana Saberi Freed

The release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi in Iran, who was jailed on trumped up spying charges, is a victory of sorts for journalists and for the U.S. Iranian officials apparently succumbed to U.S. pressure to free Saberi.

Saberi, 32, a freelance reporter for NPR and the BBC, had been held since January in an Iranian prison. She was first arrested for buying a bottle of wine but later charged with spying and working without a press credential, according to the New York Times. She had briefly gone on a hunger strike but stopped when it affected her health.

But as Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists points out, there are still at least six journalists imprisoned in Iran, none of whom received any trial, not even the kind of trial Saberi received.

The incident underlines again the danger many international (and some national) journalists place themselves in to do their jobs. Sadly, incidents like these also have the effect that repressive governments are looking for: It tamps down press coverage and that leaves governments more free to operate without scrutiny. That's a scary prospect at a time when there is less coverage than ever of the Mideast, particularly in broadcast news.

Nazanin Rafsanjani, another NPR journalist with dual American-Iranian citizenship told "On the Media," that the arrest made her think twice about plans to travel to Iran to cover the upcoming election. They decided not to go. "If it's a tactic to intimidate journalists," she said. "It's working."