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Press freedom violations recounted in real time (from 1st January 2010)

22 January 2010 - New arrest

Lilli Farhadpour, an Iranian journalist and writer, was arrested at his home on 21 January 2010. His son, Behrangh Tonkaboni, editor of the cultural monthly Farhangh é ahangh (Culture and Harmony), was arrested on 5 January.

21.01.2010 - Government warns 15 newspapers

In a continuing crackdown on the media in Iran, 15 newspapers received warnings this week for publishing comments by former reformist President Mohammad Khatami or former chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani on the way the authorities have been handling the country's crisis.

Mohammed Ali Ramin, a loyal adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly warned and threatened media, especially print media, since taking over as deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance in October. A warning is often the first step towards a newspaper's definitive closure. A charge of "insulting the president" is the legal method most often used by Ramin to stop newspapers publishing criticism of Ahmadinejad.

The 15 newspapers targeted by the latest warnings were Tehran Emrouz, Arman Ravabet Omoumi, Farhikhtegan, Jomhouri Eslami, Asrar, Etemad, Jahan-e San'at, Poul, Afarinesh, Rouzan Etemad, Etelaat, Tose'e, Rouzan, Mardom Salari and Bahar.

Meanwhile, journalist Nassrin Vaziri of the ILNA news agency was released on 20 January subject to a guarantee that she would be present for her trial. She had been held in the capital's Evin prison since her arrest on 28 December. Without saying why she was arrested, Tehran prosecutor Abass Jafari Dolatabadi said: "The investigation of her case is complete so she has been freed."

15 January 2010 - Suspension

The weekly Hemat, a conservative pro-government publication, was suspended on 14 January 2010 on the order of the Tehran prosecutor for "insulting highly placed officials of the regime". It was the paper's second ban in less than a month, and for the same reason.

Hemat had carried a photo on its front page of former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, flanked by several other figures in the regime and captioned "Rafsanjani's men".

Iran's Press Authorisation and Surveillance Commission, the censorship arm of the Islamic Culture and Orientation Ministry, suspended Hemat on 4 February 2009. The paper was allowed to publish again two months later.

Also on 14 January, two journalists from the newspaper Atrak, Mehdi Ghilani and Farshad Azizi, were released on bail set at 100 million tomans (about 75,000 euros) while awaiting trial. They were arrested respectively on 6 and 7 January 2010, following bloody clashes involving students at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad.

8 January 2010 - Daily arrests

As a roundup continues in Iran of opposition and media figures orchestrated by the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay at the arrests of Rozbeh Karimi, Mehrdad Rahimi, Behrangh Tonkaboni, Kivan Farzin, Mehdi Ghilani and Farshad Azizi. The worldwide press freedom organisation has heard nothing more of several other Iranian journalists and bloggers who were also reportedly taken into custody recently.

Two journalists working on the newspaper Atrak, Mehdi Ghilani and Farshad Azizi, were arrested on 6 and 7 January 2010, after bloody clashes at a student demonstration at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad. They are being held at an undisclosed location.

Behrangh Tonkaboni, editor of the cultural monthly Farhangh é ahangh (Culture and Harmony), and journalist Kivan Farzin, were arrested at their workplace on 5 January. The newspaper's main office was searched and computers and books seized. At the same time intelligence ministry agents searched the home of Tonkaboni's mother, Lilli Farhapour, who is also a journalist and writer.

Intelligence ministry agents arrested journalist Rozbeh Karimi, who worked for the currently banned dailies Shargh and Kargozaran, at his home along with his wife, Forough Mirzai, on 2 January,

Also on 2 January, Mehrdad Rahimi, who is director of the blog (http://shahidayeshahr.blogfa.com// ), was arrested after being summoned by the intelligence ministry and she has reportedly been taken to Evin prison.

2 January 2010 - More arrests of journalists in Tehran

There have been more arrests of journalists in the past few days. Mohammad Sadegh Javadihessar, a columnist for the now-closed daily Etemad-e Melli, was arrested on 30 December after receiving a summons from the intelligence ministry the same day. Books and his computer's hard disk were confiscated during a seven-hour search of his home. His family has received no word of him since his arrest.

Nemat Ahmadi, a lawyer who represents several imprisoned journalists, Mahsa Hekmet, another Etemad-e Melli journalist, and Mohammed Reza Zohdi, the former editor of the now closed newspaper Arya, who now writes for several other pro-reform newspapers and is a member of the Press Freedom Defence Committee, were arrested yesterday and were taken to an unknown location.

There were detained by men in plain-clothes who had come with an arrest warrant for Ali Hekmet, another member of the Press Freedom Defence Committee, and once there, arrested them instead. Ahmadi was released a few hours later but the two journalists, and Mashaallah Shamsolvaezin, the committee's spokesman, who was arrested on 28 December, are still being held in an unknown location.

Parisa Kakaei , a journalists and blogger (http://parisad.blogspot.com/), was arrested today after being summoned by the intelligence ministry. She was reportedly transferred to Tehran's Evin prison.

Press freedom violations recounted in real time - JUNE/DECEMBER 2009

Topics: Freedom of speech, Freedom of information, Freedom of expression,