Total number of journalists detained since 14 June rises to six

Reporters Without Borders protested today against the arrest on 16 June of Ensafali Hedayat of Salam, who was the sixth journalist to be detained in a space of three days against a backdrop of student protests. His detention was preceded on 15 June by the arrests of Mohsen Sazgara, editor of the (closed) reformist daily Jameh and creator of the news website www.alliran.net, and Amin Bozorgian, editor of Golestan-e-Iran. The first three journalists to be detained, on 14 June, were Taghi Rahmani of the weekly Omid-e-Zangan, Reza Alijani, editor of the monthly Iran-e-Farda and winner of the Reporters Without Borders - France Foundation press freedom prize in 2001, and Hoda Saber, a member of Iran-e-Farda's editorial staff. "These arrests are alarming - how far does the Iranian government intend to go?" said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard, again urging the European Union to condemn these "serious abuses." Ménard called for the immediate release of all 14 journalists currently imprisoned in Iran. Ménard also called on the Iranian authorities to officially acknowledge the arrests of Bozorgian and Hedayat, whose families have had no word of them since they were taken away by unidentified persons. Bozorgian, who was stopped in the street and taken away on 15 June, was previously abducted by thugs on 26 November 2002 and released five days later. Hedayat was covering a demonstration at the university of Tabriz in the north of the country on 16 June when he was detained by unidentified persons. His wife has had no news of him since then. Sazgara's wife said her husband has been on hunger strike since his arrest on 15 June. He was previously detained at his home on 18 February, several days after posting an article on his website in which he criticised Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic republic's "supreme leader." He was released four days later. On 3 June, he was banned from leaving the country because he had spoken on foreign radio stations. It is assumed that Sazgara, Bozorgian and Hedayat are suspected of inciting students to revolt. The families of Rahmani, Alijani and Saber have also received no word of them since their arrests on 14 June, but their arrests have at least been officially acknowledged by the authorities, who have accused them of meeting secretly with students to support the protest movement. Another journalist, Negare Babaghani of the daily Hambastegui, was beaten by plain-clothes police in the course of the anti-government protests that have been taking place daily around the main university campus in Tehran for more than a week. More than 250 intellectuals and journalists wrote an open letter to Ayatollah Khamenei on 15 June warning that the Islamic republic would be in danger if he did not stop resisting reforms. The letter's signatories supported the 135 parliamentarians who addressed a letter to Khamenei at the end of last month. Rahmani, Alijani and Saber are alleged to have been the instigators of the parliamentary letter.