Press freedom violations recounted in real time

Reporters without Borders

15 January 2010 - Suspension

The weekly Hemat, a conservative pro-government publication, was suspended on 14 January 2010 on the order of the Tehran prosecutor for “insulting highly placed officials of the regime”. It was the paper’s second ban in less than a month, and for the same reason.
Hemat had carried a photo on its front page of former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, flanked by several other figures in the regime and captioned “Rafsanjani’s men”.
Iran’s Press Authorisation and Surveillance Commission, the censorship arm of the Islamic Culture and Orientation Ministry, suspended Hemat on 4 February 2009. The paper was allowed to publish again two months later.
Also on 14 January, two journalists from the newspaper Atrak, Mehdi Ghilani and Farshad Azizi, were released on bail set at 100 million tomans (about 75,000 euros) while awaiting trial. They were arrested respectively on 6 and 7 January 2010, following bloody clashes involving students at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad.


8 January 2010 - Daily arrests
As a roundup continues in Iran of opposition and media figures orchestrated by the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay at the arrests of Rozbeh Karimi, Mehrdad Rahimi, Behrangh Tonkaboni, Kivan Farzin, Mehdi Ghilani and Farshad Azizi. The worldwide press freedom organisation has heard nothing more of several other Iranian journalists and bloggers who were also reportedly taken into custody recently.

Two journalists working on the newspaper Atrak, Mehdi Ghilani and Farshad Azizi, were arrested on 6 and 7 January 2010, after bloody clashes at a student demonstration at Ferdowsi University in Mashhad. They are being held at an undisclosed location.

Behrangh Tonkaboni, editor of the cultural monthly Farhangh é ahangh (Culture and Harmony), and journalist Kivan Farzin, were arrested at their workplace on 5 January. The newspaper’s main office was searched and computers and books seized. At the same time intelligence ministry agents searched the home of Tonkaboni’s mother, Lilli Farhapour, who is also a journalist and writer.

Intelligence ministry agents arrested journalist Rozbeh Karimi, who worked for the currently banned dailies Shargh and Kargozaran, at his home along with his wife, Forough Mirzai, on 2 January,

Also on 2 January, Mehrdad Rahimi, who is director of the blog (http://shahidayeshahr.blogfa.com// ), was arrested after being summoned by the intelligence ministry and she has reportedly been taken to Evin prison.