Voice of America reports on authoritarian regimes' efforts to intimidate journalists abroad: When they can't reach you, they reach your family
The Voice of America English section has published an article on the actions taken by authoritarian governments, including the Iranian regime, to restrict freedom of expression and media freedom through harassment of journalists and their families.
This article, while mentioning some of the Iranian regime's tactics in this regard, refers to an email that was apparently sent by intelligence agents of the Islamic Republic to an Iranian journalist living in Britain - 4,300 kilometers away from Iran - in which he was asked about his daughter in a threatening tone.
Sending threatening messages about harming loved ones is just one of the tricks the Iranian government and other authoritarian regimes use to harass journalists reporting from abroad.
The imprisonment of the brother of Masih Alinejad, host and commentator of the Voice of America Persian-language Tablet program, by the Islamic Republic of Iran has drawn attention to the dangers that the families of reporters and journalists may face in their home countries.
When Ms. Alinejad’s brother was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Iranian regime on charges of threatening national security, Ms. Alinejad accused Iran of holding her brother hostage as a means to silence his criticism of Tehran.
Following Ms. Alinejad's case, VOA spoke with more than a dozen journalists in exile about the consequences their reporting could have on the safety of their friends and relatives back home.
Journalists from Venezuela, Egypt, Turkey, China, and other countries told VOA how fleeing government persecution has made their friends, family, and colleagues in their homelands targets for harassment by those regimes' officials.
Security agents sometimes contact journalists’ relatives, interrogate them, and demand that they tell the journalists to stop reporting. At other times, they threaten them with dire financial consequences—such as being fired from their jobs, losing their contracts, freezing their assets. In the most horrific cases, they imprison journalists’ parents and family members for long periods of time without giving any reason.
Journalists are forced to make difficult personal decisions about how to continue their work, which has serious consequences for both the journalists and their audiences.
Iran, China, and Egypt are all among the countries where authorities, unable to directly prosecute and punish journalists, imprison their relatives, sometimes for long periods of time and without justification for the charges.
Philippe Nassif, advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, says that arresting people without reason is a violation of international law.
"Family members are no longer the exception," Mr. Nassif told VOA. "In fact, when opponents [of the regime and government] are abroad and out of reach of security agents, they are often the ones who are targeted."
Source: Voice of America
