Iran’s War On Journalists

(New York, N.Y.) – Yesterday, the international community marked World Press Freedom Day. Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been one of the world’s worst persecutors of journalists. It imprisons, harasses, and surveils journalists and their families.

Iran’s intolerance for an independent press was clearly evident this weekend after a report that Germany’s Foreign Ministry warned ARD’s correspondent in Tehran, Natalie Amiri, that she was at risk of being taken hostage, prompting her relocation to Turkey. But even Turkey has proven unsafe for Iranian reporters. Last week, Reporters Without Borders highlighted the plight of 12 Iranian journalists living there, given the extraterritorial reach of Iran’s security forces. In November 2019, Iranian intelligence operatives reportedly assassinated the editor of “The Black Box” news channel, Masoud Molavi Vardanjani, in Istanbul. 

U.N. special rapporteurs have also found that reporters from BBC Persian and other news outlets have been repeatedly threatened by Iranian operatives, specifically with criminal investigations, surveillance, and freezing of assets.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has documented the practices of Iran’s state instruments of media repression in its report, Iran’s War on Journalism and Journalists. It includes an analysis of the most common criminal charges levied against journalists and the conditions they face in jail.

To explore UANI’s resource Iran’s War on Journalism and Journalists, please click here.

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