Responding to reports that journalists were among the more than 100 defendants put on trial in Iran today for conspiring against the government, we issued the following statement...
"Iranian prosecutors have alleged that journalists conspired through the international media to discredit the June 12 presidential election," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "They are using the so-called confession of Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari as the basis for this allegation, despite the fact that in the six weeks of his detention, Bahari has had no access to a lawyer and any statements he makes are therefore suspect. It is deeply troubling that Iranian authorities invited the international media to Iran to cover the election, and then blamed them when the story turned out to be different from the one they had expected. We urge the Iranian authorities to drop these misguided charges."
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Thank you for this powerful statement and for the extraordinary work that you do.
This regime is Stalin on oil, with Islam instead of Marxism. The only difference is that they use TV to lie to the people instead of motion picture newsreel. Their Islam is about as suspect as Stalin's Marxism.
The treatment applied to them should be like COCOM and South Africa.
Now what can press do? Any firm that deals with the regime shall be publicized extensively. People are smart to make their choices.
Thanks for keeping up the pressure.
The criminal oppression of journalists needs to be exposed widely and regularly.