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Feb. 13, 1980, was Day 102 of the hostage crisis in Tehran, Iran. But for globetrotting freelance journalist William Worthy 鈥�42, it was just another day in just another post-revolution country.

In this photograph by Randy Goodman, William Worthy (center) sets up a question-answer session at a Tehran hotel with Hossein Sheikholislam (left) and Massoumeh Ebtekar (right), spokespeople for the students who held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Ebtekar, often interviewed by U.S. journalists during the crisis, was dubbed 鈥淪creaming Mary鈥� by the media. Now a professor of immunology in Tehran, she talked to Matt Lauer of the Today Show last September about the status of women in her country. Sheikholislam, meanwhile, became Iran鈥檚 deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Syria.

As a journalist, Worthy was drawn to societies that had revolted against oppressive, U.S.-backed regimes. At the same time, he believed the U.S. media鈥檚 foreign coverage favored American interests. 鈥淵ou have to talk about the imperialist press when you talk about the mass media,鈥� he told an MIT audience in 1973.

Perhaps because of this, Worthy had the U.S. government frequently nipping at his heels. In a well-publicized incident in the 1950s, he couldn鈥檛 get his passport renewed after traveling to off-limits China. To a Senate subcommittee investigating the affair in 1957, Worthy said, 鈥淚 want my passport. And I want it now.鈥�

Worthy, self-described as a pacifist and civil libertarian with a 鈥渞ebel temperament,鈥� never tired of the hassle nor wavered from a belief in the value of his work in a democratic society. For that, he recently received the Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism from Harvard鈥檚 Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Photographer Randy Goodman traveled with Worthy and recalls that 鈥渉e just never rested. Sometimes I鈥檇 just want to get something to eat,鈥� she laughs.

Worthy did eat 鈥� often while working. One night in Iran, he interviewed Hossein Sheikholislam over dinner, seeking insights into both the crisis and Iran鈥檚 Islamic Revolution. As Worthy later reported in The Boston Phoenix: 鈥淢artyrdom is a concept very dear…. If one is killed in the struggle, one鈥檚 ideas live on, and one鈥檚 work is picked up and carried to fruition by others.鈥�