Iranian freelance photojournalist Majid Saeedi was arrested by security forces at his home in Tehran on September 9, 2026, his brother, Mehdi Saeedi, told CPJ.
Mehdi told CPJ that security agents came to his brother’s home around midday and took him away. On September 14, he told CPJ that he was following his brother’s case but that the family had received no information regarding the reasons for his arrest, or his whereabouts.
As of September 14, CPJ was unable to determine which security agency was holding Saeedi, where he was being detained, and whether he faced any charges.
Saeedi has previously been detained in connection with his journalism. On June 17, 2025, during the 12-day Israel-Iran war, police arrested him in Tehran while he was photographing the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the headquarters of state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. Saeedi told CPJ that police transferred him to Evin Prison, in Tehran. He said that the following day a judge reviewed his case and ordered his release after determining that Saeedi had a valid press card and authorization to work.
In August 2021, security forces arrested Saeedi in Khoy, West Azerbaijan province, while he was photographing camps housing Afghan refugees. At the time, Saeedi was working as a photographer for Shargh Daily and had permission from authorities to cover the refugee camps, CPJ reported. Iranian media reported that he was detained for photographing restricted border areas.
Saeedi was also arrested at his home in Tehran in July 2009 amid a crackdown on journalists following Iran’s disputed presidential election. At the time he was working as a freelance photographer for Getty Images. Iranian state media subsequently alleged that Saeedi and another photographer had sent photographs to “enemy” news organizations.
Saeedi is an internationally recognized photojournalist who has received numerous awards for his work, particularly his coverage of Afghanistan. He won second prize in the 2010 UNICEF Photo of the Year for photographs documenting the effects of war on children in Afghanistan, and later received a Lucie Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In 2013, he won second prize in the Contemporary Issues category of the World Press Photo Contest for his Afghanistan work. His long-term project, Life in War, documenting the impact of decades of conflict on ordinary Afghans, won the 2014 Foto Evidence Book Award and was subsequently published as a photo book.