Increased legal prosecution and security pressure on journalists since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran

Referring to the arrest and conviction of some Iranian journalists, the International Federation of Journalists has announced that since the outbreak of the coronavirus and COVID-19, judicial prosecution and security pressure on journalists in Iran, especially at the local level, as well as on journalists who report corruption in the government, have increased.

The report states that this international body condemned the growing trend of judicial harassment of "Iranian journalists who are simply carrying out their duty to inform citizens on matters of public interest" and called on the Iranian government to immediately stop the repression of the media and end the judicial prosecutions against media workers.

Part of this report, referring to the summons and conviction of some journalists, including Mehdi Sohrabi, a local journalist in Zanjan, Amir Abbas Dehbashi-nejad in Bushehr province, Elahe Mousavi, an environmental journalist, Elahe Ramezanpour, a reporter for Hamshahri newspaper, and Shahram Safari, a Kurdish journalist, states that in addition to these legal cases, security pressures on journalists and media workers have increased throughout Iran.

Previously, Voice of America announced in a report that the international organization Reporters Without Borders, in its latest ranking of the state of press freedom in the world in 2021, a copy of which was also provided to Voice of America, announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran was ranked 174th among the 180 countries that were evaluated, down one rank.

A report by Reporters Without Borders states that government authorities in Iran are trying to reduce the number of people infected and killed by COVID-19 by tightening control over information and increasing the number of arrests and sentences of journalists to heavy prison sentences.

The US Department of State has repeatedly condemned the Islamic Republic's violent actions against the people of Iran, including civil activists, under various pretexts, as well as the repeated and persistent violations of the rights of Iranian citizens by agents of the Islamic Republic.

Source: Voice of America