Press freedom groups have urged Iranian authorities to release all of the roughly 40 journalists and media workers who have been detained in the aftermath of the country's disputed June 12 presidential election.
Iranian news organisations identified two more detained journalists in reports on Thursday. Multiple news reports named the two as cartoonist Behzad Bashbo and television producer Khalil Mir-Ashrafi. Ham Mihan, a news web ite, reported that Bashbo and Mir-Ashrafi were arrested last week at the home of Mehamsa Amrabadi, a reporter for the newspaper Itmad e Milli. Amrabadi's detention had been previously publicised.
Half or more of those detained are from a single newspaper, Kalameh Sabz, the reformist publication owned by presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Most of the jailed journalists and media workers are employed by Iranian media organisations, although at least three are working for international media, CPJ research shows. Among them is Iason Athanasiadis, a Greek freelance journalist working for the Washington Times, who was arrested in Tehran on Saturday.
Athanasiadis' parents, Polymnia Athanasiadi and Georgios Fowden, issued a statement on thursday noting that he was a dedicated, unbiased reporter. "Iason has always maintained his integrity as an independent journalist who sells articles, photographs and film to outlets in many parts of the world," the statement said. "His work serves no purpose other than the fair and humane coverage of life in the many countries where he has worked. He has a particular love of Iran, and a deep respect for its cultural and religious traditions."
Demonstrations by supporters of defeated candidates have taken place throughout Iran following the announcement of the results of the June 12 election which gave a landslide victory to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Since then, foreign journalists have been banned from leaving their offices or have been expelled, local newspapers have been censored, and Internet and telecommunication services have been disrupted, CPJ research shows.
Meanwhile, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) condemned a parade of Iranian demonstrators being shown on a loop on state-run TV confessing to having protested at the behest of foreign media. All demonstrators make their confessions using the same words that have opened the nightly news bulletin for the past week: “Bismillah, al-rahman al-rahim. I admit that I demonstrated under the influence of the BBC, the radio Voice of America and other foreign media”.
The confessions are aired at every hour of the day and night to show Iranians the extent to which those disputing the presidential election were persuaded by western agents to take part in an “orchestrated plot” against the Islamic Republic of Iran, confirming the words of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, RSF said.
“These methods are aimed at denigrating foreign media, who are already facing huge obstacles to their work and whose journalists and contributors are exposed as a result to the threat of violence from supporters of the regime,” RSF said.
In a letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President re-elected in controversial elections which led to widespread protests over the past week, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) leaders expressed particular concern over the fate of Karim Arghandepour, a well-known Iranian journalist and an elected member of the IFJ’s global Executive Committee. He has not been heard of since his arrest in the official crackdown that has followed public protest over the presidential election.
Also in hiding is Ali Masrooie, the Chair of the Association of Iranian journalists. “Like other journalists’ leaders he is fearful of being targeted by the authorities for his staunch defence of journalists and their right to work independently,” said IFJ President Jim Boumelha and General Secretary Aidan White in their letter to the Iranian President.
