Human rights experts: Iran must end harassment of journalists
UN human rights experts and investigators called on the Islamic Republic to stop the arrest, intimidation, and prosecution of journalists and civil society activists and to release imprisoned journalists ahead of the parliamentary elections.
A group of UN human rights investigators and experts issued a statement on Wednesday (November 11) calling for an end to the process of arrest, intimidation, harassment, and prosecution of journalists in Iran, and urged the country's judicial authorities to release imprisoned journalists and civil society activists ahead of the parliamentary elections in Iran.
According to Reuters, the UN experts' statement also called on Iran to release Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter in Tehran who has been "arbitrarily and unlawfully detained for peacefully defending [citizens'] fundamental rights."
Jason Rezaian, 39, a dual Iranian-American citizen, has been in custody since last summer. He was tried in a closed court presided over by Judge Salavati on charges of “espionage and acting against Iran’s national security” and convicted a month ago, but his sentence has not yet been announced, and it is said that Iranian authorities intend to use him as a hostage and bargaining chip for exchanges with Iranians imprisoned in the United States.
The recent wave of arrests of journalists in Iran began last week by the Revolutionary Guards’ Intelligence Protection Unit. The arrests of the journalists, who have been labeled “enemy infiltrators” by media outlets close to the IRGC, have drawn a response from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who called on authorities to stop filing cases against journalists “to exert pressure and settle political scores with the government.”
Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, has called the arrests and summons of journalists in Iran for questioning a "new round of repression of freedom of expression and media freedom."
Read more: Disagreement between the government and the IRGC over the arrest of "infiltrators"
Issa Saharkhiz, a journalist and political activist, Ehsan Mazandarani, editor-in-chief of Farhikhtegan newspaper, Afarin Chitsaz, a columnist for the government-run Iran newspaper, Hassan Sheikh Aghaei, director of the Ruwangeh website, and Saman Safarzaei, editor-in-chief of Andisheh Pouya magazine, are among the journalists who have been arrested in the latest round of repression. More than 20 journalists are said to have been summoned to the IRGC intelligence agency for questioning.
In April of this year, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) named Iran as one of the countries in the world with the highest number of imprisoned journalists, with 46 journalists imprisoned. Iran is known as the “journalist hell” in the world.
