Government still targeting journalists employed by foreign media

Reporters Without Borders is outraged that the Iranian judicial authorities are continuing to hold journalists employed by foreign news media including, Maziar Bahari, the correspondent of the US news magazine Newsweek, arrested exactly three months ago, and Fariba Pajooh, a stringer for Radio France Internationale and other media, who today begins her second month in detention. Bahari has dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship. “The recent change at the head of the judicial system has not in any way modified repressive policies towards free expression,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The foreign media are still being targeted by the government and accused of spying. Physical and psychological pressure is being used to force their detained correspondents to make confessions.” The press freedom organisation added: “Like all their colleagues, Maziar Bahari and Fariba Pajooh are innocent. They are still in prison solely because they are journalists.” Iran has for years been the Middle East’s biggest prison for journalists. Arrested at his Tehran home on 21 June, Bahari appeared before a court on 1 August in a crude show trial of people held to have been “responsible” for or “participants” in the demonstrations that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed reelection. Fars, a news agency that supports the Revolutionary Guards, published an interview with Bahari the same day in which he seemed to confirm the allegations made in court by the prosecutor. Bahari’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakhat, told Reporters Without Borders: “I have unfortunately not been able to see him or have access to his case file since his arrest. I still do not know what Maziar is accused of. Even the power of attorney that I gave to them on 23 June has still not been returned to me. But he has been able to see and call his family.” Pajooh, who writes for various pro-reform Iranian newspapers and edits a blog (www.after-rain.persianblog.ir/) as well as reporting for RFI and other international media, was arrested at her Tehran home by men in plain clothes on 22 August and was taken to Section 209 in Tehran’s Evin prison. Her computer and person effects were confiscated at the time of her arrest. After a period in solitary confinement, she was transferred to a collective wing of the prison. Since the start of the Tehran trials, detained journalists have not been able to see their own lawyers, who in turn have not been able see their clients’ prosecution files. Instead, lawyers linked to the intelligence services have been assigned by the Tehran prosecutor general to represent the journalists. Since 16 June, foreign journalists and news media have been forbidden by the ministry of culture and Islamic orientation to “participate in or cover demonstrations that have not been authorised.” Fewer and fewer foreign journalists are visiting Iran because visa requests are being refused. Those who have been able to visit the country have not been allowed to work freely.