Lucy Carne: Jailed Aussie bloggers are not spies — but they may be naive
Flying a drone is hardly the same level of cultural ignorance as putting a flag on your budgie smugglers. But the Aussie bloggers jailed in Tehran were simply too trusting, writes Lucy Carne. Iran has a bad rap for a reason.
Rendezview
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rendezview. Followed categories will be added to My News.
You would have thought a quick Google search would be a simple feat for bloggers.
Yet somehow the young Aussie ‘travel influencers’ who have been imprisoned in Iran seemed to have missed this vital step in their travel preparations.
Jolie King, a building designer, and Mark Firkin, a construction manager, might have prioritised the perfect social media shot over their personal safety, when they innocently launched a drone into the sky outside the Iranian capital Tehran in July.
The couple were arrested by Islamic Revolutionary Guards on suspicion of being foreign spies and are now feared to be pawns in a diplomatic standoff.
They have been imprisoned alongside University of Melbourne lecturer Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who has been detained in Iran for a year.
The travel bloggers had been documenting their globetrotting adventure online since leaving their Perth home in 2017.
They set off in their modified Toyota Land Cruiser with the plan to travel for two years driving across 36 countries, while filming the trip for social media.
“Our biggest motivation behind making the vlogs is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad wrap (sic) in the media,” they said in a post on a crowd-funding platform.
But their naive faith that the world is a safe and friendly place has proved the exact opposite.
RELATED: Jolie King moved out of solitary confinement in Iran’s Evin Prison in Tehran
Iran is a rogue state that knows that using foreign hostages as bargaining chips pays off.
Of course these two young Aussies are not spies, but their ignorance of official government warnings has put them in a dangerous position which is unlikely to be resolved swiftly.
Rather than heed the Lonely Planet guide, which describes Iran as “what could be the friendliest country on earth”, a quick internet search offers a far more accurate reality.
The Smart Traveller website officially advises travellers to Iran to “reconsider your need to travel”. It also lists the use of drones as illegal without a permit.
Or perhaps the stories of the many Westerners who have been arrested on false charges of spying would be enough of a deterrent.
Sarah Shourd was one of three American hikers imprisoned in Iran in 2009 and spent 410 days in solitary confinement in Evin prison.
Ms King, who holds dual British nationality, has also been kept in the same Evin solitary confinement area.
MORE FROM LUCY CARNE: Will Hong Kong be the next Tiananmen Square?
Ms Shourd said she felt like an animal and during her darkest moments punched the walls until her knuckles bled.
“It erases you,” she said of living alone in a cell in her book A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran.
“It’s like being buried alive. You can’t talk to anyone, you can’t laugh, you can’t have a personality. Your world shrinks. It becomes smaller and smaller. Everything you know, everything you loved, seems far away.”
We should not be back in this same position that we were in only a few months ago when Perth student Alek Sigley vanished in North Korea _ another nuclear-armed regime.
By some miracle, Mr Sigley was freed.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has pleaded “face-to-face” with her Iranian counterpart for the release and humane treatment of the three Australians.
Britain will also attempt talks with Iran over the detention of British nationals.
But the sad fact is, neither of the approaches may result in a sudden resolution.
M ORE FROM LUCY CARNE: Sorry, Jackie. No one sends texts like that
Former British Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt told BBC Radio 4: “Iran does work on a basis of putting the pressure on these countries that it believes are hostile to it.
“And hostage-taking appears to be part of the practice.”
He said that the practice of detaining people “means that it makes it very difficult for those who want a different relationship with Iran to get on the front foot with those who regard it as unremittingly hostile.”
No one expects Mr Firkin and Ms King to have had a complex understanding of the fractious relations surrounding Iran’s break down of the 2015 nuclear deal and US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions.
But a wary traveller would at least be cautious enough to realise that Iran is no fairytale utopia.
In their YouTube videos, Mr Firkin and Ms King display some bold choices _ turning down the offer of a police escort through a dangerous mountainous section of Pakistan; ignoring a ‘do not enter’ sign on a vertical cliff path in Indonesia; and wearing thongs in the snow.
But flying a drone is hardly the same level of cultural stupidity as putting the Malaysian flag on your budgie smugglers.
Iran has a bad rap for a reason. This couple were simply too trusting to think they could prove otherwise.
Now all we can do is hope that all the detained Australians come home safe _ and soon.
Lucy Carne is editor of RendezView
Originally published as Lucy Carne: Jailed Aussie bloggers are not spies — but they may be naive