Speak Out Against Iran’s Criminalization of Journalism
November 2, 2017 — The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) today released a video about the criminal investigation by Iran’s judiciary of 152 current and former staff members of BBC Persian. The defendants, all Iranian nationals based outside the country, recently discovered that the Iranian judiciary froze their assets in the state’s ongoing campaign aimed at intimidating Farsi-speaking journalists into stopping their reporting on Iran or producing pro-state reporting.
The BBC has called on Iran to end its “unprecedented collective punishment of journalists who are simply doing their jobs” and urged the UN to hold the Islamic Republic in violation of international law.
“Iran is setting a dangerous precedent by attempting to silence the voices of potential critics based abroad by creating a criminal record for them in absentia,” said CHRI’s Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi in a statement published on October 25, 2017.
“If European and other countries with business leverage over Iran don’t speak out now, they will be leaving the door open for hardline state actors to execute aggressive policies against freedom of speech of all Iranian nationals in democratic countries where such rights are guaranteed,” he said.
CHRI implores all advocates and defenders of freedom of expression and speech to speak out against Iran’s ongoing attempts to criminalize journalism inside and outside the country. Join us in presenting a united front against Iran’s attempts to criminalize journalism inside and outside its borders.
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