Yaghma Fashkhami

Fashkhami is a reporter covering local political news for the semi-independent news website Modara. 

Prior to his arrest he covered national protests on Modara and on his Twitter account. (CPJ reviewed the coverage on Twitter, which appears to have been deleted.) Demonstrations began in Iran following the September 16 death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, after morality police arrested her for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law. 

Fashkhami was arrested after he was summoned by the Intelligence Ministry, the semi-reformist state owned Shargh Daily reported. According to a tweet by his wife, Mona Moafi, who was also briefly detained, he was immediately transferred to solitary confinement in ward 209 of Evin Prison. 

CPJ was unable to determine what, if any, charges the journalist faces or the status of his health in prison. 

Fashkhami was previously imprisoned on accusations of “propaganda against the regime” in 2017 when he was a reporter for news website Didban Iran. 

Authorities arrested dozens of journalists as the protests over Amini’s death spread across the country. Several of them were later 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.