Reporters Without Borders Condemns Prison Sentences Issued Against Three Iranian Journalists
Reporters Without Borders responded on Wednesday, June 18, to prison sentences issued against three Iranian journalists: Shahram Safaei, Keyvan Samimi Bahabadi, and Khosro Sadeqi Borujeni since the beginning of 2020, detailing the verdicts handed down.
According to the organization, Khosro Sadeqi Borujeni, a journalist and member of the Free Journalists Association of Tehran, was informed on June 24 that Branch 36 of the Court of Appeals sentenced him to 7 years in prison. Additionally, Shahram Safaei, administrator of the Ravizhpress Telegram channel, was sentenced on the same date by Branch 101 of the Criminal Court of Kermanshah to 91 days in prison.
According to the report, Khosro Sadeqi Borujeni was convicted on charges including “insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic,” “propaganda against the regime,” and “assembly and conspiracy against internal and external security,” while Shahram Safaei was convicted on charges such as “publishing false information” and “disturbing public opinion, making people skeptical of the clerical establishment and Qom seminary” and “publishing COVID-19 patient statistics.”
The organization described Keyvan Samimi Bahabadi as “a prominent figure in Iranian journalism” and noted that he had been imprisoned previously. According to the report, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced this Iranian journalist on June 24 to serve 3 years in prison.
Reporters Without Borders, while condemning the sentences issued against these three Iranian journalists, condemned the systematic issuance of prison sentences for journalists in Iran.
These sentences have been issued against these Iranian journalists since the beginning of 2020, at a time when the condition of Iranian prisons due to the spread of COVID-19 has been reported as concerning, and previously news regarding the spread of this virus in Iranian prisons and the Iranian government authorities’ obstruction of the release or granting of furloughs to some political and civil prisoners had been published by media outlets and human rights organizations.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has continuously faced criticism for suppressing media and imprisoning journalists. Reporters Without Borders announced in mid-May 2020 in a report titled “World Press Freedom Index 2020” that Iran ranks 173rd among 180 countries.
Previously, the U.S. State Department published posts titled “40 Years of Unfulfilled Promises” by the Islamic Republic on its Persian Twitter account, writing about corruption, lack of freedom of speech, lack of justice, and unfulfilled economic promises by officials of the Islamic Republic.
In these tweets, the U.S. State Department wrote: “Forty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini promised freedom of speech and press freedom. Today, Iran has one of the most repressed media spaces. The ruling regime has only brought forty years of failure.”
Source: Voice of America
