Letter from 230 Journalists to Rouhani: Address the Situation of Detained Journalists

Coinciding with “World Press Freedom Day,” 230 journalists sent an open letter to Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, calling for attention to the situation of detained journalists.

In part of this letter, referring to the imprisonment of a number of Iranian journalists, it states: “You are our president and we voted for ‘prudence and hope’ to witness, as ordered by the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, ‘maximum inclusion and minimum exclusion,’ not the opposite.”

These journalists asked the eleventh government’s president to “devise a solution” so that “the word ‘infiltration’ is not misused, intentionally or unintentionally, and talented young journalists do not spend their youth behind prison bars.”

Isa Saharkhiz, director-general of domestic press during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency, Afarin Chitsaz, a writer for Iran newspaper, Ehsan Mazandarani, editor-in-chief of Farhekhegan newspaper, and Ehsan Safarzayi, a freelance reporter, have been in detention since mid-November of last year.

Davoud Asadi, brother of Hushang Asadi, a journalist residing in France, has also been detained along with these individuals. Mr. Asadi’s family recently announced that he was not a journalist and had no journalistic activities whatsoever.

Meanwhile, last week the Revolutionary Court sentenced Afarin Chitsaz, Ehsan Mazandarani, Ehsan Safarzayi, and Davoud Asadi to prison.

Differences of opinion have emerged between the government and Iran’s judiciary regarding the detention of these journalists.

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, has implicitly criticized these arrests, but the judiciary has said it has evidence against the detainees.

Iranian officials say that journalists are detained for security reasons and not because of their media activities.