Two journalists freed on bail
June 15, 2006 Original Alert: February 16, 2006 Elham Afroutan and Mohsen Dorostkar, Tammadon-e Hormozgan IMPRISONED On January 29, Mohsen Dorostkar, editor-in-chief of Tammadon-e Hormozgan, and Elham Afroutan, a journalist for the weekly, were among seven journalists jailed after publishing a satirical article written by an Iranian Web blogger in Germany, and likening Iran’s 1979…
State paper closed, editor and cartoonist charged
New York, May 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the closure today of an Iranian state newspaper, and the arrest of its editor-in-chief and a cartoonist who published a cartoon that sparked riots by ethnic Azeris in the northwestern city of Tabriz. Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, ordered the arrest of Mehrdad…
The world’s most censored countries
Could you pick out Equatorial Guinea on the world map? Or Turkmenistan, or Eritrea? Probably not at the first attempt. These countries are usually below the radar of the international media, and the autocrats who run them like it that way. It helps them crush press freedoms and keep their population in the dark. That is why the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based press freedom group, has drawn up a league table of the world’s 10 most censored countries. We hope that the list, issued on World Press Freedom Day, will shine a light into the dark corners of the world where governments and their political cronies decide what people will read, see, and hear.
Iranian journalist Ganji freed after six years in prison
New York, March 20, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from prison of prominent Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, freed on Friday after six years behind bars, but the organization calls on authorities to release all Iranian journalists jailed for their work. At least nine journalists are now jailed in Iran, CPJ research shows.
Seven journalists held
February 28, 2006 Original Alert: February 16, 2006 Elham Afroutan and six other journalists, Tammadon-e Hormozgan IMPRISONED Elham Afroutan, one of seven journalists jailed after publishing a satirical article that criticized the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has been transferred from prison in Bandar Abbas to Tehran’s Evin Prison after she attempted suicide in custody, according to…
Iran arrests seven journalists over satirical article
New York, February 16, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of seven Iranian journalists over a satirical article and is deeply concerned by an unconfirmed report that one of them has died in jail. Elham Afroutan and six other journalists of the weekly newspaper Tammadon-e Hormozgan were detained in the southern city of…
Attacks on the Press 2005: Countries That Have Jailed Journalists (Follow Links for More Details)
AFGHANISTAN: 1 Ali Mohaqqiq Nasab, Haqooq-i-Zan (Women’s Rights) Imprisoned: October 1, 2005 The attorney general ordered editor Nasab’s arrest on blasphemy charges after the religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, Mohaiuddin Baluch, filed a complaint about his magazine. “I took the two magazines and spoke to the Supreme Court chief, who wrote to the attorney…
Attacks on the Press 2005: Middle East Analysis
In the Crosshairs, Journalists Face New Threat By Joel Campagna The bomb that ripped through Samir Qassir’s white Alfa Romeo on June 2, 2005, silenced Lebanon’s most fearless journalist. For years, Qassir’s outspoken columns in the daily Al-Nahar took on the Syrian government and its Lebanese allies when few reporters dared do so. The assassination sent shockwaves…
Attacks on the Press 2005: Iran
IRAN Hard-liners in government and the judiciary continued a crackdown on the independent media in general and on Internet journalists in particular. In the course of the year, authorities jailed Web bloggers, banned four newspapers for publishing a letter by a reformist cleric, and closed the Tehran bureau of the Arabic-language satellite-TV channel Al-Jazeera.