Iran protests: At least 28 journalists arrested amid nationwide anti-government protests

As of Thursday, CPJ has documented the arrests of at least 28 journalists in Iran during nationwide protests over the September 16 death in custody of 22-year old Mahsa Amini. Earlier in the week, CPJ called on Iranian authorities to end their crackdown on journalists and release all those arrested for covering the protests. CPJ has also called for the Iranian government to restore internet access in the country.

In a feature published Thursday, CPJ senior researcher Yeganeh Rezaian, who spent 72 days in solitary confinement while an accredited journalist in Iran in 2014, discusses the implications of the latest developments in the country. The environment is “very stifling,” Rezaian says, “but female journalists, like other women in society, have been undeterred by the threats of reprisal from authorities. It’s one of the reasons that this moment feels different.” Read the full Q&A on CPJ’s website.

Watch and share CPJ’s video about the unfolding situation in the country, and find the latest arrest numbers on CPJ’s homepage.

Global press freedom updates

• Russian journalists arrested, detained, charged, summonsed during anti-mobilization protests
• “He should never have been on trial”: CPJ on acquittal of Kyrgyzstan investigative reporter Bolot Temirov
• CPJ condemns eight year jail sentence for Belarusian journalist Ksenia Lutskina
• CPJ supports Las Vegas Review-Journal’s efforts to protect slain reporter’s unpublished source material
• Kurdistan 24 reporter “wounded severely” in Iran’s shelling in Iraqi Kurdistan
• Proposed Ugandan legislation seeks to criminalize “misuse of social media”
• Myanmar sentences freelance BBC Media Action reporter Htet Htet Khine to second three year prison term
• Journalists suffer injuries while covering the war in Ukraine
• DRC journalist Tatiana Osango sexually assaulted, two other journalists attacked by police in separate incident

Spotlight

On September 22, CPJ President Jodie Ginsberg participated in a United Nations General Assembly side event organized by the Czech Republic Mission to the UN and the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom. In the event, titled “Providing Safe Refuge to Journalists at Risk in an Increasingly Dangerous World,” Ginsberg stressed the importance of emergency visas for journalists in distress.

“We know from 40 years of work that being able to find safe refuge…a mechanism to leave a dangerous country, is vital, not only for the survival of journalists, but actually for journalism,” Ginsberg said.

Read CPJ’s coverage of the event on Twitter and watch the full panel discussion on YouTube.

What we are reading

• I reported on the military’s abuses, and then I became a victim — Ye Mon, Frontier Myanmar [Content warning: graphic description of sexual assault]
• Doppelganger – Media clones serving Russian propaganda — Alexandre Alaphilippe, Gary Machado, Raquel Miguel, and Francesco Poldi, EU DisinfoLab in partnership with Qurium
• 4 years after Khashoggi’s murder, assaults on press freedom are getting worse — David Ignatius, The Washington Post
• Muhammad Najem, Syrian who reported on war as a teenager, releases ‘harrowing’ graphic memoir — The New Arab
• A Guatemalan law meant to protect women from violence is being used against journalists — Leila Miller, Los Angeles Times
• Cambodia’s Press Freedom ‘Under Attack,’ Report Finds — Lors Liblib, Voice of America

A closer look | CPJ’s most-read features in September

• ‘An open-air prison’: Kashmiri journalists on how travel bans undermine press freedom — Sonali Dhawan/CPJ Asia researcher
• Journalists tell CPJ how Tunisia’s tough new constitution curbs their access to information — CPJ Middle East and North Africa staff
• Spain is set to reform ‘gag law,’ but press freedom groups are skeptical — Attila Mong/CPJ Europe representative
• US reporters wary of online, legal threats in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade — Katherine Jacobsen/CPJ U.S. and Canada program coordinator