Attacks on the Press 2007: Iran
IRAN Iran’s troubled economy weakened President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s power at home, with protests spilling into the streets and intellectuals, activists, and students expressing dissent in the media. Silencing the uproar became essential for Ahmadinejad, prompting authorities to intensify a media crackdown that had been waged by conservative forces for a decade. Iran became the world’s…
Hiran governor arrests BBC reporter in central Somalia
JANUARY 15, 2008 Posted January 16, 2008 Ayanle Hussein Abdi, BBC Freelance HARASSED Local police arrested BBC freelance reporter Ayanle Hussein Abdi on Tuesday in Beledweyne, the capital of the central Somali region of Hiran. The governor of Hiran Province, Yusuf Dabageed, ordered the arrest of Abdi with no official charges but accused the reporter…
SOMALIA: In central Hiran province, governor detains three journalist
AUGUST 18, 2007 Posted September 7, 2007 Abdi Moalim Aden, Radio Hiraan Voice HARASSED Elmi Mohammed Waare, Radio Hiraan Voice Sawda Hussein, Radio Hiraan Voice IMPRISONED Authorities in the central Hiraan province capital of Beledweyne detained two reporters and an executive of private Radio Hiraan Voice over coverage of a press conference of Gov. Yusuf…
Iranian journalist sentenced to death in closed trial
New York, August 6, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the death sentence handed down in mid-July by a revolutionary court against Adnan Hassanpour, a journalist and former editor for the now-defunct Kurdish-Persian weekly Aso in Iran’s northwestern province of Kurdistan. Iranian Kurdish environmental activist Abdulvahed Butimar was also convicted and sentenced to death. Hassanpour…
Radio Farda journalist charged, barred from leaving Iran
New York, May 30, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Iranian authorities to drop criminal charges against an Iranian-American journalist working for U.S.-backed Radio Farda, to return the journalist’s seized passport, and to allow her to travel freely. On May 15, the Special Security Bureau of the Revolutionary Court Public Prosecutor’s office charged…
Attacks on the Press 2006: Iran
IRAN With world attention focused on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad turned the screws on press freedom and intimidated critical journalists into silence or self-censorship. Ahmadinejad, who has pursued the conservative parliament’s policy of relentlessly stifling independent journalism since his election in August 2005, used the nuclear debate to deflect…
Iranian journalist languishes in jail without charge
New York, January 9, 2007-The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that an Iranian journalist has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison for more than 40 days without charge. Ali Farahbakhsh, a former economics and foreign affairs reporter for the banned reformist dailies Yas-e No and Shargh, was detained by security officers…
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.
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: 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.