Iran’s journalists are under siege

Excerpt

Iran’s journalists are under siege. The Center for Human Rights in Iran reported earlier this month that the regime in Tehran was “summoning journalists, raiding their homes and confiscating their electronic devices in a renewed campaign to silence criticism of state policies ahead of Iran’s parliamentary elections” on Feb. 21.

It’s only one of the latest outrages in a lengthy list of recent Iranian misconduct against journalists. According to Reporters Without Borders, a total of 24 journalists and citizen-journalists currently languish in Iranian jails, making it the world’s seventh-largest jailer of journalists. Since 1979, the organization states, Tehran has imprisoned or executed at least 860 journalists and citizen-journalists. Reporters Without Borders has ranked Iran 170th out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

In September 2019, four journalists — Amirhossein Mohammadifard, Sanaz Alahyari, Asal Mohammadi, and Amir Amirgholi — received prison sentences of 18 years each following convictions on charges that included “membership of a group with the purpose of disrupting national security.” The group in question: Gam, an online magazine that reports on social justice issues. An appeals court later reduced the sentences to five years each.

Tzvi Kahn is a senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @TzviKahn. FDD is a Washington, D.C.-based, nonprofit nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.