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Recent criticism has been of the speech she gave at the AAJA convention workshop entitled Journalist in Jeopardy. During her video-taped address, she encouraged students who wanted to be freelancers to choose a country where there are fewer reporters so that coverage would be in more demand, and encouraged journalists to learn the local legal system and languages. Back in the Midwest, people are crticial of Saberi and her lack of comment on the arrest of the three Americans that crossed the Iranian border while hiking. Opinion columns and editorials have been surfacing in Minnesota newspapers, while in a Laguana Beach newspaper, Patrick Sandys, cousin of one of the hikers said that Saberi has been in contact with the family, stating: "She wasn't mistreated because the guards were basically afraid to hurt a westerner, or an American. This was a big deal and had some media attention so they didn't want to be the ones to injure that person."
The media in the United States has reported the case against Roxana Saberi as that of a hard-working, over-achiever singled out by a repressive Islamic-regime for political gain. Other areas of the world have reported the case as an Iranian-American journalist reporting without press credentials in a country where those same press credentials can mean the difference between employment and deportation. Iran has reported the story as an Iranian who was questioning many government officials in her efforts to research a book, who broke it's country's laws, and had documents she was unauthorized to take. Since she was reporting to foreign media outlets, she must be a spy. The lack of real information released by both Iran and Roxana Saberi have created a case littered with half-truths, omissions, and doubt, questioning now not only the credibility of Iran, but of Saberi herself.
