Columbia J-students learn the price of reporting in Iran
The two venues for the launch of Attacks on the Press in New York couldn’t have been more different. On Tuesday morning I was joined by Newsweek’s Maziar Bahari, and CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Bob Dietz in the hushed auditorium of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at United Nations headquarters. The event was so well attended…
At U.N, Bahari and CPJ urge global attention
Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari helped us launch Attacks on the Press at the United Nations in New York today. Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian citizen, was labeled an enemy of the Iranian regime and cruelly imprisoned for 118 days last year in Tehran. His very presence today, CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney noted, was testament to the…
Human rights coverage spreads, despite government pushback
By Mohamed Abdel Dayem and Robert Mahoney The media in the Middle East loved the Intifada. Every detail of Israel’s violations of human rights in the late 1980s in the West Bank and Gaza appeared in the Arabic and Farsi press. The governments that owned or controlled these media outlets loved it, too. When pan-Arab…
Attacks on the Press 2009: Iran
Top Developments• Dozens of journalists are detained in massive post-election crackdown.• Numerous critical newspapers, Web sites censored or shut down. Key Statistic 23: Journalists imprisoned as of December 1, 2009. Amid the greatest national political upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran launched a full-scale assault on the media and the opposition. In mid-June, mass protests erupted…
On revolution’s anniversary, Iran stifles Internet
New York, February 11, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Iranian government’s attempt to slow down the Internet and block text messaging ahead of expected demonstrations during today’s 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
Groups join forces, urge Iran to free journalists
‘Our Society Will Be a Free Society’ campaign launched February 11, 2010, New York—A coalition of leading international journalists’, writers’, and publishers’ organizations today launched a campaign to press the government of Iran to release their colleagues imprisoned in the wake of last year’s disputed presidential election CPJ, PEN, Reporters Sans Frontières, Index on Censorship,…
CPJ, coalition appeal to Ayatollah Khamenei
From the Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN, Index on Censorship, Reporters Sans Frontières, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and the International Publishers Association: Our organizations, dedicated to freedom of expression, are writing on the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Revolution to urge you to free all writers, journalists, and editors currently in prison for carrying out their professions in Iran.
Saudi operator Arabsat takes Iran’s Al-Alam network off air
New York, February 3, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called for Saudi-run satellite operator Arabsat to return to air the Iranian-owned Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Alam, which stopped broadcasting January 27 without prior notice, according to international news reports. In a statement published on its Web site, Al-Alam said that “Arabsat, in continuation of its censorship…
With 47 journalists in jail, Iran sets notorious records
New York, February 3, 2010—Iranian authorities are now holding at least 47 journalists in prison, more than any single country has imprisoned since 1996, according to a new survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists. While many of the detainees were arrested in the aftermath of the disputed June presidential election, CPJ’s survey found that authorities…