A crackdown against journalists and cyber-dissidents is continuing in Iran with both Iranian and foreign journalists caught in the eye of the post-election storm, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has said. Among the latest arrests was that of a correspondent for the US magazine Newsweek, Maziar Bahari, picked up at his home in Tehran on June 21.
“The authorities are using all possible methods to drive foreign journalists out of Iran, where they are unwanted witnesses to bloody repression,” RSF said. “The arrest of the Newsweek correspondent is a clear sign of the regime’s determination to intimidate journalists whether Iranian or foreign, local or international newspaper correspondents.” The latest arrests bring the number of journalists picked up and imprisoned since the disputed presidential election to 26 (according to RSF).
“After demonising the foreign media, the authorities are trying to have it believed that Iranian journalists are spies in the pay of foreigners, confusing news reporting with spying”, it added.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, on June 23 urged the Iranian authorities to respect fundamental civil and political rights, including freedom of expression, the right to inform the public and of free assembly.
The Iran security services went to the home of Bahari, aged 41, early in the morning and seized his computer and video recordings. He had been interrogated on June 17 by the Guardians of the Revolution about one of his video recordings relating to the death of a demonstrator. His family said that they have had no news of him since his arrest, according to information obtained by RSF. Newsweek put out a statement on Monday strongly condemning his arrest and calling for his immediate release.
Elsewhere, RSF learnt of the arrest at midnight Monday at his home of Mostafa Ghavnlo Ghajar, a contributor to several newspapers and a specialist on foreign media on Radio Goftogo (see his blog : http://www.ghajar.ir/). Freelance journalist Fariborez Srosh was also reportedly arrested on June 16. He has been imprisoned in the past because of his work with Radio farda (Radio Free Europe).
The organisation is very concerned by early reports of torture and maltreatment in Evin prison, where most of those arrested are being held. According to information obtained by the organisation, the journalists were transferred to Section 209 of the jail where they are coming under heavy pressure to make filmed “confessions” about their “involvement in a velvet revolution”.
Eleven days after the presidential election, 26 journalists are currently behind bars. With a total of 36 journalists now jailed, Iran is the world’s biggest prison for journalists, ahead of China and Cuba.
