Iran

We issued the following statement today after learning that Iranian authorities have been holding U.S. freelance journalist Roxana Saberi without charge since January…

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies and human rights record drew widespread criticism from academics, activists, and journalists. In response, Ahmadinejad sought to suppress independent media by manipulating government subsidies, exerting censorship, and using the punitive tools of detention and harassment.

New York, March 19, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Iranian government’s ban on nine lifestyle and cinema magazines because of their content about foreign film stars and their promotion of “superstitions.” This latest wave of shuttering publications, spearheaded by the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, occurred on Sunday. The Press Supervisory Board, part…

New York, March 14, 2008—Iranian authorities should immediately disclose the legal status of Afghan journalist Ali Mohaqiq Nasab who was arrested in the north-central city of Qom 10 days ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Nasab, 50, was taken from his home on March 4 by three plainclothes police officers who were bearing…

New York, March 3, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the one-year jail sentence handed down in absentia to an Iranian-American journalist working for U.S.-backed Radio Farda by a Revolutionary Court on Saturday. Tehran’s 13th Revolutionary Court convicted Parnaz Azima of disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic by working for Radio Farda,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…