Source:
Committee to Protect Journalists
More than 100 dissidents and journalists faced vague antistate accusations
during a mass judicial
proceeding in August 2009.
The number of journalists in jail rose in February
as a relentless media crackdown continues in Iran. Authorities are now holding
at least 52 journalists in prison, a third of all those in jail around the
world, according to the latest monthly survey by the Committee to Protect
Journalists.
"Iran is entering a
state of permanent media repression, a situation that is not only appalling but
also untenable," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "The Iranian government
will eventually lose the war against information, but we are saddened every day
that our colleagues are paying such a terrible price."
Some of the imprisoned Iranian journalists
Twelve journalists
were imprisoned in February alone, although seven were released. The January
census recorded 47 in jail. CPJ has joined forces with leading press freedom
organizations from around the world in
a campaign to win the
release of journalists jailed in Iran. An online petition that will be sent to
Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei later this month
is available
on the site.
In light of the
Iranian government's ongoing crackdown, CPJ has been conducting a monthly survey
of journalists imprisoned in Iran. (CPJ normally conducts a worldwide survey of
jailed journalists each December.) The survey, conducted on the first of each
month, is a snapshot of those incarcerated on that date. It does not include
more than 50 other journalists in Iran who have been imprisoned and released on
bail over the last several months. Five of those now in jail were detained prior
to the 2009 crackdown.
Imprisoned reporter Shiva Nazar Ahari |
The current detainees
include internationally known figures such as Emadeddin Baghi, the author and
human rights defender, Mohammad Davari, an editor who helped expose prisoner
abuse at the Kahrizak Detention Center, and Shiva Nazar Ahari, a human rights
reporter who has been jailed twice in the last nine months and is being held in
solitary confinement.
In most cases,
authorities have filed vague antistate charges such as "propagation against the
regime," insulting authorities, and disrupting public order. But many cases are
shrouded in secrecy, without even formal charges being disclosed.
Some detainees have
already been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, lashes, internal exile, and
lifetime bans on writing and other social and political activities. The cases of
many others are pending. At least two face heresy charges that, upon conviction,
would bring the death penalty.
Currently,
China is the world's second
largest jailer of journalists, with 24 in prison, followed by
Cuba, with 22. The number of
jailed journalists is the highest CPJ has recorded in a single country since
December 1996, when it documented 78 imprisonments in Turkey.
Read capsule reports on each journalist jailed in Iran
... Payvand News - 03/10/10 ... --
