February 2024

Roxana Saberi is a CBS News correspondent based in Chicago, where her reporting is featured across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.

Saberi has covered a wide range of issues for CBS News in the U.S. and beyond, including the Ohio train derailment and its aftermath, the disappearance of the Titan submersible, the increase of chemicals in drinking water, the history of Ferris wheels, and conflicts in the Middle East, including the Israel-Hamas war.

Before being deployed to Chicago, Saberi served five years as a foreign correspondent based in the Network’s London bureau. From there, she covered the Middle East and Europe. Among the many stories she covered were the British royal family, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, the effects of climate change in Antarctica, two FIFA World Cups, US-Iran tensions and the migrant crisis in Europe.

Saberi joined CBS News as a freelance correspondent in 2016. In addition to her work in the field, Saberi served as a fill-in anchor on CBS News’ 24/7 digital streaming news network.

Prior to CBS News, Saberi was a correspondent for Al Jazeera America, where she reported breaking news, enterprise and investigative stories across the United States and abroad.

Earlier, Saberi spent six years living and reporting in Iran. Advanced in Persian, she covered the country’s politics, foreign policy, nuclear program, economy and culture. She also covered Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and the 2006 Lebanon War.

In 2009, while writing a book about Iran, Saberi was arrested and held for 100 days in Tehran’s Evin Prison on a false charge of spying for the CIA. Following an international campaign for her release, she returned to the United States and wrote the book Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran. She continued to report on Iran and the Middle East and serve as an Iran commentator for various news organizations.

Saberi has earned several awards for her work, including the Medill Medal of Courage, the Ilaria Alpi Freedom of the Press Award and the NCAA Award of Valor.

She began her journalism career as a reporter for KVLY-TV, the NBC affiliate in Fargo, N.D. She then reported for News 24 Houston.

Saberi was born in New Jersey and raised in North Dakota. She graduated summa cum laude from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., with degrees in communications and French. She holds master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and in international relations from the University of Cambridge.