Iran released jailed U.S. freelance journalist Roxana Saberi today after a judicial court reduced the sentence of her April conviction on espionage charges on appeal, news agencies are reporting. Saberi had been in prison since her arrest in January for allegedly buying alcohol, charges that later were changed to being in the country on an expired visa, and then to espionage. In April, Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota who had reported for National Public Radio and other press outfits, was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.

According to news reports, an appeals court reduced Saberi’s sentence to a suspended two-year sentence and as a condition of her release directed her to leave the country and not return for at least two years.

Saberi’s release came a day after a five-hour, closed-door hearing in appeals court on Sunday.

Blog posts, stories and other good stuff I’ve seen this week on writing, freelancing and the digital media business:

Elance: Cash is King – The freelance marketplace’s monthly index shows demand is up for article writing (+2) and way up for online writing (+12).

Amazon introduces the Kindle DX – The newest version of the bookseller’s electronic reading tablet out this summer will have a 9.7″ making it well-suited, according to Amazon, for magazines, newspapers and textbooks.

Tweetsurfing: what it is and why all writers should do it - Motley Fool writer Tim Beyers explains the finer points of trolling Twitter for interesting tidbits that could turn into story ideas.

Twitter is down: 15 alternative things to do – The techies at Twitter took down the service for scheduled maintenance on Friday afternoon, leaving a lot of people with a lot of extra time on their hands, including the writers and readers at TechCrunch, who came up with a hilarious list of other things to do (many of which centered around bitching about Twitter being down).

Retraining wire and feature editors to be web curabors – Call it the copy editor’s full employment act. If editors can teach themselves SEO and link out to related material, Publishing 2.0 argues, they’ll never be out of a job.

Finding the fun in querying – Freelance writer and fellow WordCount Blogathoner Heather Boerner is doing a 30-day series on persistence, which includes this installment on getting over query angst.

When freelancers flake we all suffer – Almost too painful to read, this post from writer and editor KT Hinderer on freelance foul ups is a good reminder that if you ever get in a jam on a story, don’t think your editor won’t notice. Better to fess up and suffer the consequences than to “burn bridges before you can even finish building them.”

Dear Editor:

I’m leaving you. It’s been coming on for some time now, but I didn’t want to say anything that would jeopardize what we had until I was absolutely sure. Now I am.

I can’t work for you anymore. I’ve held up my end of the relationship. I’ve done what I said I’d do. I’ve been there when you needed me, when you had no one else to turn to. I came through for you even under extremely trying circumstances when it looked like things weren’t going to work out.

And what do I get in return? You take forever to return my calls or emails. You make promises you don’t keep, especially about money. You twist my words. You make decisions on a whim and unreasonable demands after the fact.

So this is goodbye. I’m sure you’ll find someone to replace me. There are lots of others just like me out there, eager to please, willing to do what it takes for a little recognition.

You probably won’t even miss me. And even though I may end up poorer for it, you can be sure I won’t miss you.

Signed,

Your Freelancer

Here’s to the New Year! Watch this space for links to my stories online, links to great resources for writers and freelancers, and much more.