Iranian morality police arrested journalist Rohullah Nakhaee on September 23, 2022 when he was covering street protests in Tehran following the September 16 death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law.
Nakhaee is a freelance foreign policy reporter who works for local Iranian media and Farsi-language exile-based TV news channels. The reporter also shares news and commentary on a Telegram channel Tavarroq, which has around 120 subscribers.
According to Journalism Is Not A Crime, an exile-run website that covers news of Iranian journalists, the journalist’s whereabouts and his potential charges have not been officially announced by the Iranian authorities.
CPJ is unable to determine where the journalist is held or the status of his health in prison.
Authorities arrested dozens of journalists in Iran in relation to their coverage of the demonstrations after Amini’s death. Several of them have now been released on bail.
CPJ emailed Iran’s mission to the United Nations in late 2022 for comment on the cases of imprisoned Iranian journalists but received no response.