Online journalist Javad Gholam Tamayomi released

Journalist Javad Gholam Tamayomi, who was arrested on 18 October 2004 for contributing to reformist websites, was released between 3 and 7 January. Reporters Without Borders pointed out that weblogger Mojtaba Saminejad remains in prison. Tamayomi told an officially-called press conference held on 14 December when he was still imprisoned, that he had been very well treated in jail. Reporters Without Borders said at the time that his confessions were "phoney" because they were obtained under duress. Since their release, other journalists who had also been arrested for their online work, have regularly been threatened by police and forced to deny that they suffered any mistreatment. Mojtaba Saminejad was arrested at the beginning of November for condemning on his website (http://man-namanam.blogspot.com) the arrest of four webloggers, who have since been freed. ---------------------------------- 10.12.04 Cyberjournalist Fereshteh Ghazi released Journalist Fereshteh Ghazi was released from prison on 7 December 2004 after paying bail of 500 million rials (about 50,000 euros). She was arrested on 28 October for having contributed to reformist Internet sites. Reporters Without Borders welcomed her release and called for the immediate release of Javad Gholam Tamayomi, the last of a group of seven recently-arrested cyberjournalists still in prison. Ghazi was reportedly admitted to a Tehran hospital immediately after her release. She was understood to be physically and mentally weakened. ------------------------------- 3.12.04 Online journalists Omid Memarian and Shahram Rafihzadeh freed Journalists Omid Memarian and Shahram Rafihzadeh have been released from prison since yesterday, each on bail of 500 million rials (€50,000), the Iranian student news agency ISNA said. Rafihzadeh was arrested on 7 September and Memarian on 10 October and accused of working with pro-Reformist Internet websites. They were reportedly tortured and are in poor physical and mental health. The French news agency AFP said they had been officially accused of "hostile behaviour towards the authorities which undermined national security." Seven Iranian journalists were jailed in October and November in connection with online activity. Two of them, Javad Gholam Tamayomi and Fershteh Ghazi, are still in prison. Five "bloggers" have also been jailed in recent months (see http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11978). ----------- 1.12.2004 Cyberjournalist Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh released Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release of journalist Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh who was freed on 30 November after putting up bail of 300 million rials (around 30,000 euros). She had been arrested on 1st November 2004, for contributing to reformist Internet websites. The worldwide press freedom organisation called for the immediate release of the four journalists still being held in custody under the latest crackdown against Iran's online media. Chief Justice of Iran, Abassali Alizadeh, who held a press conference on the subject of the prisoners on 30 November, denied they had been subjected to torture referring to the use of "special interrogation techniques". He said the journalists were being held in individual cells that measured two metres square but refused to say where they were being detained ---------------------------------------------------- 5.11.2004 Women's media, rights groups urged to take action after second woman journalist arrested on Internet-related charges Reporters Without Borders today called on women's media and women's rights groups around the world to rally to the defence of two iranian women journalists who have been arrested in the past eight days in connection with their work for pro-reform websites. The latest arrest is that of Mahboudeh Abbasgholizadeh, the editor of Ferzaneh, a magazine about women's issues, who was detained on 1 November on her return from London, where she took part in the European Social Forum. Police searched her Tehran home, confiscating her computer hard drive and other items. Fereshteh Ghazi, who writes about women's issues and who works for the daily Etemad (which means "Trust" in Farsi), was arrested four days ealier, on 28 October, by the Edareh Amaken (a police force that concentrates on vice). She is reportedly accused of "immoral behaviour," a charge often brought against political prisoners in Iran. In 2001, Ghazi wrote a letter to the Iranian authorities calling for the release of Afsaneh Noroozi, a young woman who had been sentenced to death for the murder of a policemen. The letter also criticised the violation of women's rights in Iran. The arrests of these two women journalists are part of a crackdown on the online press in which five other cyber-journalists have been imprisoned for writing for pro-reform websites or keeping weblogs. They are: - Javad Gholam Tamayomi of the daily Mardomsalari ("Democracy" in Farsi), who was arrested on 18 October after going to the 9th section of the Tehran prosecutor's department in response to a summons; - Omid Memarian, a journalist and weblogger who was arrested on 10 October; - Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, Etemad's former political affairs editor, who was arrested at his home on 27 September; - Hanif Mazroi, a former journalist with several pro-reform newspapers, arrested on 8 September; - Shahram Rafihzadeh, the editor of Etemad's arts and culture section, arrested on 7 September. The European Parliament passed a resolution on 27 October condemning their arrests. Support letter by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF)