Iranian journalist Hossein Shanbehzadeh, others imprisoned ahead of presidential election
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2024—Iranian authorities must immediately release blogger and book editor Hossein Shanbehzadeh and drop the espionage charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. Officers with the Iranian Cyber Police arrested Shanbehzadeh on espionage charges in the northwestern city of Ardabil, in Ardabil province, on Thursday, June 6. His social…
Iran arrests Kurdish editor-in-chief, Iranian cartoonist, sues several newspapers
Washington, D.C., April 19, 2024—Iranian authorities must immediately release Kurdish-Iranian journalist Rasoul Galehban and drop any charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. Galehban, the publisher and the editor-in-chief of Urmiye24 Kurdish News, was arrested by the Iran’s Cyber Police Unit in the city of Urmia, in West Azerbaijan province, on April…
Iranian reporter Mehdi Afshar-Nik held incommunicado since January 31
Washington, D.C., February 6, 2024—Iranian authorities should immediately release investigative journalist Mehdi Afshar-Nik, whose whereabouts remain unknown since his arrest, and drop any charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday. Around midnight on January 31, two plain-clothed agents of the Iranian security forces raided Afshar-Nik’s home, ransacked his apartment, confiscated his personal…
Iranian journalists remain vulnerable in exile, says formerly imprisoned columnist Nejat Bahrami
By CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program The revelation of a plot by Iranian intelligence agents to kidnap and extradite Brooklyn-based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad shocked the world last month. Another Iranian journalist, Nejat Bahrami, experienced the nightmare of life in Iranian custody that Alinejad appears to have escaped. Last year he served five…
Iranian journalists arrested ahead of elections
New York, March 15, 2017–Iranian authorities should immediately release Ehsan Mazandarani, Hengameh Shahidi, and all journalists jailed for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The arrests come ahead of presidential elections scheduled for May.
CPJ condemns Iran’s jailing of journalists
New York, April 26, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns an Iranian court’s sentencing of three reformist journalists. Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced the three to between five and 10 years in prison on charges of “acting against national security,” according to press reports.
Iran’s press record needs scrutiny at U.N. General Assembly
New York, September 9, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed that dozens of journalists remain imprisoned in Iran more than a year after the inauguration of President Hassan Rouhani, who has pledged to seek more constructive engagement with the international community. CPJ calls on attendees of this month’s U.N. General Assembly to urge Rouhani…
The 2009 Iran crackdown continues today
Five years ago on Monday, CPJ announced that Iran had officially become the world’s leading jailer of journalists in the world. The announcement came on the heels of an unprecedented crackdown on the press that began on June 12, 2009, the day of Iran’s tumultuous presidential election that sparked a mass protest movement.
In Iran, series of arrests and prosecutions target journalists
In the first few months of 2014, multiple journalists were arrested, interrogated, and prosecuted in Iran. Authorities pursued a revolving-door policy in imprisoning journalists, freeing some detainees on short-term furloughs even as they make new arrests.