24 JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS ARRESTED IN IRAN
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.06.2009 20:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iranian authorities have arrested at least 24
journalists and bloggers since postelection protests began a week
ago, and a media watchdog says reporters are a "priority target"
for Iran’s leadership.
Among those detained were the head of the Association of Iranian
Journalists and a Canadian reporter for Newsweek. The British
Broadcasting Corporation’s correspondent has been ordered to leave
the country.
"It’s becoming more and more problematic for journalists," said Benoit
Hervieu of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, also known by its
French acronym RSF.
The group released the names of 23 Iranian journalists, editors
and bloggers arrested since June 14, and says it has lost contact
with several others believed detained or in hiding. Hervieu said
RSF verified each arrest via its network of reporters and activists
in Iran.
Newsweek said in a statement later that its correspondent Maziar
Bahari, a Canadian citizen, was detained without charge Sunday morning
and has not been heard from since. Newsweek defended his coverage of
Iran as "fair and nuanced" and called for his release.
In most cases, the reasons behind the detentions remain unclear.
Iran’s authorities have long kept a close eye on local and
international media operating in the country, and clamped down as
protests engulfed Tehran last week over the June 12 presidential
election, the biggest challenge to the cleric-led government in 30
years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner,
but supporters of reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi say fraud
was widespread.
Authorities have banned foreign media from reporting from the street
and allow only phone interviews and information from officials
sources such as state TV. Many Web sites have been blocked. Iran is
particularly sensitive about news reports, blogs and Internet reports
in Farsi.
"The regime has been visibly shaken by its own population and does
not want to let this perception endure," RSF said in a statement.
The BBC’s Jon Leyne has been ordered to leave the country, a BBC
spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with company policy.
The Fars news agency said Sunday that Leyne will have to leave
Iran within 24 hours, and that Iranian officials have accused him of
"dispatching fabricated news and reports, ignoring neutrality in news,
supporting rioters and trampling the Iranian nation’s rights."
Ali Mazroui, the head of the Association of Iranian Journalists, was
arrested Sunday morning, RSF said. Overnight, husband-and-wife Bahaman
Ahamadi Amoee and Jila Baniyaghoob were arrested by plainclothes
officers who searched their home, RSF said. Baniyaghoob edits a news
Web site that focuses on women’s rights, and her husband writes for
various pro-reform publications.
Others detained include a blogger known as the "Blogging Mullah,"
a cartoonist, a TV producer, the publisher of several newspapers,
a disabled former newspaper editor and a business reporter.
Nakhle Elhage, news director at Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television
network, said authorities told them their activities have been
suspended until further notice but did not ask their resident
correspondent Diaa al-Nasseri – an Iraqi – to leave.
Last Sunday, Al Arabiya in Tehran was told by the authorities to
suspend their activities for one week.
RSF says that, even before the election, Iran held more journalists and
cyber-dissidents in jails than any other country in the Middle East.
Hervieu said blogs, Twitter, YouTube and other Internet methods are
the only way most people can convey information from the street. But
the use of anonymity by blog posters trying to avoid repercussions
makes information difficult to verify. Many of those posting "are both
spectators and activists," blurring lines of impartiality, he said.
He said small digital cameras passed from activist to activist and
then to a foreign colleague or news organization are helping spread
images, though their provenance is not always clear. He noted the
example of the much-viewed amateur video on YouTube, showing dozens
of Iranians running down a street and shouting "Allahu Akbar" after
police fired tear gas.
AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said last week that, when controls
are imposed, "we work with those restrictions, keeping in mind our
ultimate goal is to be able to do our jobs as journalists," she said.
Reporters were also restricted during the 1979 Iranian Revolution,
which saw the installation of the Islamic regime in power today,
reported the Associated Press.