Blogger released but press freedom violations continue

Organisation:

RSF_en

Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release on 17 January 2009, of blogger Shahnaz Gholami, editor of the blog Azar Zan (http://azarwomen.blogfa.com), after 69 days in custody. She was freed on bail of 200 million toman (about 200 000 euros). Gholami had gone on hunger strike to protest at the harsh conditions of her detention in Tabriz prison, north-west of Tehran, which began on 9 November 2008. Her arrest warrant said “articles damaging to national security had been found at her home” and that “the accused clearly stated that she posted these articles on her weblog”. “We are pleased for Shahnaz Gholami and her family that she is free; she had only seen her nine-year-old daughter once since the start of her imprisonment”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “She has now been released, but her blog, which is her only method of expressing herself, is censored in her country. The authorities' hounding of those who dare to be critical in an attempt to silence them, detracts from the positive aspect of this release. Human rights activists are always the first targets of official repression preventing them from freely publishing news. We strongly condemn this attitude”, the organisation added. Also on 17 January, the website launched by the Circle for the Defenders of Human Rights http://www.humanrights-ir.org, was blocked by Internet service providers on the orders of the authorities. Around 100 militiamen, called out by the Revolutionary Guards, demonstrated on 1st January outside the home of lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Circle, shouting slogans against her and the organisation. Iranian police on 21 December 2008 closed the Circle's offices, on the grounds that the organisation did not have permission from the interior ministry “to carry out its activities”. Further, the Kuridsh bi-monthly Rouji Ha Lat was banned on 11January for the second time in a year, because the Press Surveillance Commission had its publication licence cancelled for “procedural irregularities”. The newspaper was banned for the first time, in April 2008, but the Kurdistan Supreme Court finally allowed the paper to reappear in November. Since then, Rouji Ha Lat had produced five issues in which most of the articles dealt with peaceful solutions to the conflict affecting Kurdish regimes.

Published on 20.01.2009