Journalist beaten while reporting on vaccination process in Iran

A newspaper reporter in Iran has been attacked by security guards at Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The Tehran Journalists' Association has described the attack as a result of the country's authorities' disregard for the rights of the media and journalists.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Iranian Journalists' Guild expressed regret over the beating of a female journalist while reporting on vaccinations at the Saei Complex.

According to this announcement, Faezeh Momeni, a reporter for the Sobh-e-No newspaper, was stopped and questioned by hospital security guards on Monday, May 17, while preparing the aforementioned report, after interviewing several medical staff members at Beheshti Hospital University of Medical Sciences.

Ms. Momeni's resistance to the illegal demand of security guards to hand over her journalistic equipment resulted in the journalist being beaten and her hand broken, which required surgery. The security guard also forcibly took Ms. Momeni's equipment from her and deleted the interviews she had conducted.

The Iranian Journalists' Guild strongly condemned the incident, describing it as "one of the worst attacks that have occurred against a journalist in a completely illegal manner" and calling it "an example of the increasing insecurity of the journalism profession in Iran."

The announcement also states: "The disregard of state officials for the rights of the media and journalists and the numerous cases of violations of the security of the journalistic profession in various forms have reached such a level that anyone allows themselves to commit such criminal, despicable and aggressive behavior towards a journalist."

This association has called on Shahid Beheshti University officials to take action against the illegal and arbitrary detention of their agents and apologize to the Sobh Now reporter.

The association also called on the judiciary to handle the complaint filed by Ms. Momeni and her colleagues at Sobh-e-Naw fairly and without discrimination, and to investigate the case in a manner that is “befitting the dignity and security of the journalism profession.”

Lack of transparency in information provision

The attack on the Sobh-e-No newspaper reporter took place on the same day that eight newspapers across the country issued a joint statement to the government, describing “contradictory news and information about vaccine imports” as “a sign of disunity in the decision-making system on this vital issue.”

The Sobh-e-No newspaper, close to Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the current speaker of parliament, was not among these eight relatively progressive newspapers in the country, but both that statement and the beating of the journalist indicate an attempt to perpetuate the lack of transparency in the information system for the public, which has always been one of the great weaknesses of the government in Iran and has now become more apparent than ever in the Corona crisis.

The issue of the weak performance of public relations, which, by their duty, should provide the greatest amount of information to the public, continues to be a hot topic, and journalists' efforts to keep the public transparently informed about the ins and outs of the country's events and the weak and poor performance of government institutions are also facing numerous problems and limitations, which have only been somewhat reduced under the pressure of social networks.

However, the attack on the Sobh No newspaper reporter shows that the security of information work in Iran is still under threat, beyond hidden and overt security pressures, including physical confrontations.

Source: DW