HRANA News Agency– Amnesty International -Iran must release all
journalists being held solely for carrying out their legitimate work,
Amnesty International urged after at least 14 reporters were arrested in
the past three days amid police raids on newspaper offices.
The
journalists are reportedly accused of cooperating with
"anti-revolutionary" Persian-language media organizations outside Iran.
"This latest example of locking-up Iran's journalists is a result
of draconian restrictions on reporting which violate the right to
freedom of expression and must be relaxed," said Ann Harrison, Deputy
Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa
Programme.
"All journalists who are imprisoned in Iran merely for
peacefully doing their job should be released immediately and
unconditionally."
The latest to be arrested – Keyvan Mehrgan,
formerly of the newspaper Shargh, and Hossein Taghchi – were reportedly
arrested today.
Security forces stormed the offices of several
Tehran-based publications at the weekend, according to Iranian media.
Ten journalists were arrested in five simultaneous raids on Sunday,
while two were reportedly arrested on Saturday.
Security agents
reportedly searched and videotaped the premises. They also searched some
of the journalists' homes. Some had phones and press permits
confiscated.
The arrests reportedly took place after warrants were issued by the Court of Media and Culture.
The
journalists arrested on Sunday have been transferred to an unknown
location while the two detained on Saturday were reportedly taken to
Evin Prison.
The latest series of arrests follows the return to
jail of Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand, who was sent back to Evin Prison on
Friday after being released on furlough for medical treatment in
December 2012.
Kaboudvand, who is in poor health, is serving a
10-and-a-half-year sentence imposed for his journalism and human rights
work. It was the first time he has been allowed furlough since his
arrest in 2007.
Journalists in Iran face numerous restrictions on
their legitimate work, which includes peaceful criticism of the
authorities and reporting on human rights issues.
Iran's Minister
of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Mohammad Hosseini, said today that the
arrests of the journalists are unrelated to their work.
However,
last week Prosecutor General Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei seemed to
forewarn of the sweep, saying at a 21 January press conference:
"Tomorrow, if any of these individuals is arrested for a criminal act,
you…will scream and yell, whereas unbeknown to you that individual was
the mouthpiece of the enemy.”
He also said that, according to
“reliable sources”, several Iranian journalists in the country were
working with westerners and "anti-revolutionaries".
The
publications targeted over the weekend are Bahar, Shargh, Arman, Etemad,
Aseman Weekly and the Iranian Labour News Agency. The pro-government
Tabnak news website has also been suspended.
"It appears that the
journalists targeted are victims of the government's paranoia about
what they claim is a ‘soft revolution’ orchestrated by Western
governments," said Harrison.
"Sadly, this is nothing new. Many
media workers face constant harassment and intimidation by the
authorities, who react ruthlessly to the slightest whiff of criticism."
Dozens
of journalists have been harassed, detained and imprisoned in recent
years and detainees' families have also been harassed or temporarily
detained.
Many of those arrested solely because of their peaceful
professional activities before and after the disputed June 2009
election remain in prison, often held in poor conditions.
“The
welcome news last week that four imprisoned journalists had been granted
temporary release should not have been used as an excuse to fill their
places with yet more journalists,” said Harrison.
“All
journalists held solely for their legitimate work must be released
immediately and unconditionally as they are prisoners of conscience.”
Background
The
names of those arrested on Sunday and Monday are: Akbar Montajebi
(Aseman Weekly), Emily Amraei (Bahar newspaper), Motahareh Shafie and
Narges Joudaki (Arman newspaper), Pouria Alemi and Pejman Mousavi
(Shargh newspaper), Sassan Aghaei, Javad Deliri and Nasrin Takhiri
(Etemad newspaper), Saba Azarpeik, Keyvan Mehrgan, (Shargh), and Hossein
Taghchi.
Milad Fadai Asl, the political editor of Iranian Labour
News Agency and Soleyman Mohammadi, a reporter from the reformist Bahar
newspaper, were reportedly arrested by security forces on Saturday
night and taken to Tehran’s Evin prison.
Sassan Aghaei has been
previously arrested a number of times, including in 2002 when he was
arrested in connection with holding an illegal gathering marking the
anniversary of 1999 student demonstrations which were brutally repressed
by security forces. Milad Fadai Asl was arrested in December 2009 and
sentenced to a one-year prison sentence after conviction of “spreading
propaganda against the system”.
Shargh newspaper has been banned
several times in the past, including for nearly three years between
August 2007 and April 2010. It was banned again for three months in
September 2012 after publishing a cartoon some officials deemed
offensive to veterans of the Iran-Iraq war.
HRANA
News Agency – Etela'at ministry of Iran claimed in a statement that the
arrested journalists were associated to BBC and might be another group
to arrest in the next few days.
The
Pentagon report names two individuals as Iranian intelligence agents.
NIAC worked with them and organized a Congressional briefing for them.
Also, NIAC worked with editor of Iraninterlink, identified by the report
as VEVAK's website
