Iran

Four Azeri minority journalists who were arrested on September 10 while meeting at a political activist’s home in Tehran were released on November 8 after paying bail of 50 million toumen (45,000 euros) but they are still charged with “conspiracy” and “offence against national security.” They spent nearly two months in solitary confinement in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison where, according to...

Moderate Iranian weekly Shahrvand Emrouz has been suspended at the behest of the country's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance after publishing four issues in a row with portraits of politicians seen as potential presidential candidates, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. In a separate development, an online journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison on a national...

Four Azeri journalists have been held without charge for more than 10 days, possibly in Tehran's Evin prison, while an Azeri journalist and blogger was sentenced to six months in prison on September 20 for her online articles, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. "These Azeris join the list of ethnic minority journalists held in Iran's prisons for criticising social inequality and...

Prosecutors should drop all charges against Iranian journalist Adnan Hassanpour, whose death sentence was overturned Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Friday. A court of appeal overturned the sentence against Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist and former editor for the now-defunct Kurdish-Persian weekly Aso in Iran's northwestern province of Kurdistan, local journalists told...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Iranian authorities to disclose charges against two detained Kurdish journalists or release them immediately. On August 28, security forces arrested Anvar Sa'di Muchashi and his cousin at his home in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kordestan province in northwestern Iran, and took them to an unknown location, local journalists told CPJ. A...

Iranian authorities expelled Hassan Fahs, the chief of Al Arabiya news television station's Tehran bureau Tuesday after revoking his media accreditation, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has reported. According to Al Arabiya's website, a documentary film about Iran aired under the title "The Road to The Revolution" may be the motive behind this decision. The new Iranian...

Iranian journalist Yosef Azizi Banitruf has been sentenced to five years in jail after he exposed excessive use of force against demonstrators from the Arab community who clashed with security forces in Khuzestan in south-west Iran, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The trial of Azizi Banitruf, a member of Iran's Arab minority, was held over almost two years. The Tehran revolutionary...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Iranian authorities to make public any charges against a Kurdish journalist and human rights activist who they have held for more than two weeks, or release him immediately. On July 27, security forces arrested Saman Rasoulpour, 23, a Kurdish journalist and a member of the Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights in Kurdistan, in his...

A prominent Iranian journalist of Arab ethnicity has been sentenced to five years in jail, according to ADN Kronos International (AKI). Yousuf Ben Azizi, was found guilty of 'subversive activities' after he published several articles three years ago after protests in the city of Ahwaz and other southern Iranian cities inhabited by Arabs. "My client was found guilty of subversive activities with...

An Iranian newspaper journalist has been executed for allegedly associating with a militant group and threatening national security, officials in Iran said Tuesday, according to a report in the Guardian. Yaghoob Mirnehad, a reporter for the Tehran-based Mardomsalari newspaper, was executed along with another man on Monday, a spokesman for the judiciary said. Some background: Mirnehad, who was...