Reporters Without Borders: Islamic Republic takes journalists' families hostage
Reporters Without Borders condemned the arrest of family members and relatives of journalist Masih Alinejad and announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran is holding the journalists' families hostage.
In a statement released on Thursday, October 2, Reporters Without Borders referred to the details of the arrest of Ali Alinejad, Masih Alinejad's brother, on October 25 of this year, and stated that, according to the journalist, it was "taking family members hostage to force them to silence."
Ms. Alinejad, the founder of the "White Wednesdays" campaign, had previously told VOA on April 12, 2019, that her mother had been summoned to the security police and told that she must answer for "telephone communication with abroad."
According to the report, "a number of families of prisoners of conscience and journalists are under pressure from the security and judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic. Some family members of imprisoned journalists have also been detained for reporting on the condition of the prisoners."
In relation to these arrests, we can mention Farangis Mazloum, the mother of Soheil Arabi, the imprisoned photographer and citizen journalist and winner of the 2017 Citizen Journalist Award, and Shahrzad Jafari, the sister of Nooshin Jafari, the former head of the arts and literature pages of Etemad newspaper.
Reporters Without Borders wrote that Shahrzad Jafari was released three days later, according to her lawyer. However, no official news has been released about these prisoners so far.
The report also states that "the suppression of freedom of information has not been limited to Iran's borders. The regime has always paid attention to showing its face in the world, and in this way, global media outlets have also become victims of repression and censorship," and that Reporters Without Borders "has counted at least 25 threats against journalists and their families inside and outside the country since last year."
The report adds that the Islamic Republic of Iran has used the accusations of “espionage” and “collaboration with [hostile] countries” to arrest and convict many journalists, especially those working with American media outlets. This is despite the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Foreign Ministry and the Supreme Court of Justice have officially declared that Iran is not at war or hostile to any country.
The Islamic Republic of Iran ranks 170th out of 180 countries in the 2019 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Ranking.
International organizations have repeatedly accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of violating freedom of expression and restricting the media.
Previously, the US State Department had published material titled "40 Years of Unfulfilled Promises" by the Islamic Republic on its Persian Twitter account, writing about corruption, lack of freedom of expression, lack of justice, and unfulfilled economic promises by Islamic Republic officials.
The US State Department wrote in these tweets that "Forty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini promised freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Today, Iran has one of the most repressed media environments. The ruling regime has only failed for forty years."
Source: Voice of America
