Maziar Bahari considers himself lucky.That may be an understatement for the Iranian-Canadian journalist, who — only six years ago — spent 118 days surviving physical and psychological torture in Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin Prison in Tehran.Bahari — who covered Iran for a decade as a Newsweek correspondent — was on the ground in 2009, when the reelection of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked allegations of election fraud and widespread protests.In the immediate aftermath, Iranian intelligence officers knocked on the doors of Bahari’s family home and arrested him without informing him of any charges he faced. He was later accused of being a spy for the CIA, Israel’s Mossad, Britain’s MI6, and even Newsweek. After nearly four months, he was released and allowed to leave the country.Bahari's story was told worldwide when Rosewater, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart’s film based on Bahari's experience and memoir, was released last year. But sadly, his experience of imprisonment is not an isolated case.At least 221 journalists were imprisoned worldwide in 2014, including 30 in Iran, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists . The number of detainees in Iran increases to 46 when social media activists are included, Impact Iran estimates.Treatment of journalists in Iran has been in the headlines once again with the case of The Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, who has spent more than 500 days in detention for espionage-related charges in the same prison in Tehran.Refinery29 spoke with Bahari about his experience and the importance of protecting press freedom ahead of his recent appearance at the United Nations campus in New York, where he participated in a Rosewater screening and panel on human rights in Iran organized by the advocacy effort Journalism Is Not A Crime. "Everything that happens in a country affects people in other countries. It doesn’t matter if it’s an election in Burma, a coup in Mali, or a bombing in Syria, whatever happens in one part of the world affects other people in another part of the world."That’s why they have to care about what is happening to journalists in the rest of the world. Journalists basically have this supervisory role — not only in the U.S., but in different countries — to tell people the truth about what is going on, to hold the government accountable, to hold all powers accountable, not only governments. It can be corporations, it can be different institutions, and it can be celebrities, sometimes."Just to hold them accountable, to create some transparency, and through that transparency, through journalists being able to do their job, we will live in a more transparent, accountable, secure world. If we really care about our security, if we really care about living in a safe world, then we have to care about journalists being able to work freely, independently, and with freedom.""The fact that Jon Stewart, with his high profile, being a celebrity, being someone who is quite influential, especially on young people, cared about an issue in another country and identified with another character from another country, took time to make a film, edit it, and publicize it — it’s a step forward. But no single film, no single campaign, nothing can change people’s minds or change the world."These are all small steps we all have to take. Jon Stewart took a big step by making the film. I am taking as many steps as I can — different people, if they sign a petition, like a Facebook page, or tweet, they are taking their own steps. We all have to take part in this global campaign for more transparency, more accountability for different governments."