Al Jazeera's D. Parvaz On Being Imprisoned: 'You Realize The Value Of Freedom'

D. Parvaz, senior producer of human rights at Al Jazeera America, joined HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski Tuesday to discuss the one-year anniversary of three of her colleagues being jailed in Egypt.

Parvaz shared her own experience of being imprisoned in 2011 for 19 days -- first in Syria and then in Iran on spying charges -- as well as the importance of producing journalism in the face of adversity.

"My ordeal was very short lived compared to what my colleagues are going through and what others are going though and have been through," she said. "I can tell you though that nothing highlights more what matters in our profession and why we do what we do than going through something like that. You realize the value of freedom and you realize the value of being able to report freely without being locked in a room and being accused of ridiculous crimes."

While it remains unclear when Egypt will release Al Jazeera's Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed after convicting them of spreading false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, Parvaz acknowledged that her colleagues are part of a larger, global issue of press freedom. In December, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that there are currently 220 journalists imprisoned around the world, the second highest number since the CPJ began keeping track in 1990.

"Right now my colleagues haven't been able to breathe a free breath in a year and they haven't been able to report in a year and they're just three of at least 220," Parvaz said. "So it's dire and it's ongoing and it continues ... We just need to work hard to get people out when they've just been jailed for no reason."