Iran

A jailed Iranian journalist has warned that if his complaint against Iran's supreme leader, president, and chief prosecutor is not pursued he will appeal to international bodies, RFE/RL's Radio Farda has reported. Isa Saharkhiz said in an open letter on July 25 that if the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, did not take action on his grievance in the coming month he would take his...

Abdolreza Tajik, an Iranian journalist and member of the member of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, has been the victim of mistreatment since his arrest on June 23. Relatives say that when they visited him for the first time in Evin prison on July 14, he told them he had been victim of violence in the presence of the Tehran deputy prosecutor-general during his first night in prison, according to...

Iran has sentenced award-winning journalist Emadeddin Baghi to a year in prison and banned him from political activities for five years, an opposition website has reported. Baghi, who is also a well-known human rights activist, has been "sentenced to one year in prison and banned from political activities for five years after a two-year trial for forming a group defending the rights of prisoners,"...

Iran has detained two more journalists, according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Abdolreza Tajik, who writes for reformist newspapers in Iran including Fath, Bonyan, Bahar, and Shargh, was arrested on June 12. Tajik's sister told US government-backed Farsi-language Radio Farda that her brother was arrested after being summoned to Tehran’s Intelligence Ministry. After a month of not...

Those responsible for Zahra Kazemi's death have enjoyed complete impunity for the past seven years, thanks in part to the silence and passivity of the international bodies that are supposed to protect human rights. Mistreatment, rape and torture are common in Iranian prisons. Those behind the murders of prisoners, such as former Tehran prosecutor general Sayeed Mortazavi, continue to hold

Leading Iranian journalist Emadoldin Baghi has been freed on bail after six months in detention, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) . He is to be tried on July 4. “Baghi’s conditional release after six months in solitary confinement, in appalling conditions and subjected to arbitrary interrogations, is obviously good news,” Paris-based RSF said. “But is Iran is still holding 36 other...

A 13-year prison sentence was handed down to Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in absentia on Sunday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Newsweek correspondent Bahari, who was held in detention for four months on manufactured anti-state charges in 2009, was sentenced by a Tehran Revolutionary Court on Sunday to 13 years in prison, in addition to 74 lashes. Bahari...

Thirty-five journalists were imprisoned in Iran as of April 1 as authorities continued their nearly year-long crackdown on the news media, according to CPJ’s latest monthly census. Another 18 journalists were free on short-term furloughs granted for the Iranian New Year and were expected to report back to prison. Many of the incarcerated journalists are under immense physical and psychological...

Several Iranian journalists continue to be held in inhumane conditions at the notorious Evin Prison. At least one journalist is reported in deteriorating health, and two are under severe duress to “confess” to charges that could bring execution, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. The daughters of Badressadat Mofidi, the prominent Iranian journalist and secretary of the banned...

Although a number of journalists and netizens have been freed in in Iran during the past few days, the crackdown on media and journalists is continuing. The daily Etemad was suspended on March 1 and the weekly Iran Dokht’s licence has been cancelled. At the same time, journalists continue to be arrested in Tehran and many others throughout the country have received summonses, according to...