Iran should drop charges against journalists

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.”