Voice of America Report on Authoritarian Regimes’ Attempts to Intimidate Journalists Outside Their Borders: When They Can’t Reach You, They Go After Your Family
The English section of Voice of America has covered measures taken by authoritarian governments, including the Iranian regime, to restrict freedom of speech and press freedom through harassment and intimidation of journalists and their families.
In this article, citing some of the Iranian regime’s tactics in this regard, reference is made to an email apparently sent by Islamic Republic intelligence agents to an Iranian journalist living in Britain—4,300 kilometers away from Iran—in which he was threateningly asked about his daughter.
Sending threatening messages about harming loved ones is just one of the tactics used by the Iranian government and other authoritarian regimes to harass journalists reporting from abroad.
The imprisonment of Masih Alinejad’s brother, the host and analyst of the Tablet program in the Farsi section of Voice of America, by the Islamic Republic of Iran regime has drawn attention to the dangers that families of journalists and news reporters in their home countries may face.
When Alinejad’s brother was sentenced by the Iranian regime to eight years in prison on charges of threatening national security, Alinejad accused Iran of hostage-taking of her brother as a tool to silence her criticisms of Tehran.
Following the Alinejad case, Voice of America spoke with more than ten journalists living in exile about the consequences that their reporting could have on the security of friends and relatives in their homeland.
Journalists from Venezuela, Egypt, Turkey, China, and other countries told Voice of America how their escape from government harassment and persecution has made their friends, families, and colleagues in their homeland targets of abuse by those regimes’ authorities.
Security officials sometimes contact journalists’ relatives, interrogate them, and demand they tell journalists to stop reporting. In other cases, they threaten them with serious financial consequences—such as job loss, loss of work contracts, asset freezing. In the most horrifying cases, they imprison journalists’ parents and family members for extended periods without providing any justification.
Journalists are forced to make difficult personal decisions regarding continuation of their work, which has heavy consequences for both the journalists and their audiences.
Iran, China, and Egypt are all among countries whose authorities, unable to directly pursue and punish journalists, sometimes imprison their relatives for extended periods without justifying charges.
Philip Nassif, director of support for the Middle East and North Africa section at Amnesty International, says that detaining people without reason violates international law.
Mr. Nassif told Voice of America: “Family members are no longer an exception. In fact, when opponents [of the regime and government] are outside the country and out of reach of security officials, it is often they who are targeted.”
Source: Voice of America
