Iranian authorities launch mass arrest of dissident journalists

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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Clampdown on press intensifies

Iranian security forces have launched a fresh wave of arrests against dissident journalists.

On Sunday, security forces raided the offices of reformist newspapers Shargh, Etemad, Bahar and Arman and detained at least nine journalists there. Security agents also forced their way into the office of Aseman, a pro-reform weekly.

During the simultaneous raides, the following individuals were arrested:
Javad Daliri, Sasan Aghaei, Nasrin Takhayori, Motahareh Shafiey, Narges Judaki, Emily Amraee, Pouria Alami, Akbar Montajabi and Pejman Mousavi.

Agents also searched the homes of some of the detainees and confiscated a number of personal items.

There are also unconfirmed reports that the number of detainees could be higher.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog group, Iran was the second-worst jailer of journalists in 2012 with 45 behind bars. The world’s worst jailer was Turkey, with 49 journalists imprisoned during the same period.

Sunday’s arrests came just a day after two other members of the press were detained in Iran. Milad Fadaei-Asl, a journalist for the semi-official ILNA news agency, and Soleiman Mohammadi, who worked with the reformist Bahar newspaper, were both arrested on Saturday.

Fadaei-Asl was also arrested during the unrest that followed the contested 2009 presidential election and was later sentenced to a year in prison.

During a press conference on 21 January, Iran’s prosecutor general, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei saidthat based on “reliable sources,” a number of journalists had been colluding with the country’s enemies.

“Unfortunately, today, a number of journalists … are working hand-in-hand with the West as well as counter-revolutionary elements,” he told journalists. “Now if a single one of these individuals is arrested for a criminal act, you yourselves will also shriek [in protest], oblivious to the fact that this individual has been a mouthpiece … for the enemy.”

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