At least 25 Reporters and Journalists Among Hundreds Detained Amid Iran Protests
Minimum Total of At Least 37 Members of the Press Currently Detained Nationwide
September 30, 2022 – At least 25 reporters and journalists are among the hundreds of people who’ve been arrested by state security forces since protests erupted throughout Iran on September 16, 2022, the Center for Human Rights in Iran has learned.
The number of newly detained media workers brings the minimum total number of members of the media who are currently detained in Iran to at least 37.
Human rights groups have reported that at least 83 people have been killed since Iranian state security forces began violently repressing street protests.
CHRI emphasizes that the numbers of arrests and deaths are likely higher and being underreported due to the Iranian government’s attempts to block accurate information from being reported.
Part of the reason why accurate numbers are difficult to obtain is because of the Iranian government’s ongoing crackdown on journalists and reporters, as well as more than a week of internet disruptions and the blocking of social media channels, which have delayed information about arrests and killings from reaching the outside world.
CHRI condemns the ongoing arrests of members of the press in Iran and calls on the Islamic Republic’s judicial authorities to release all individuals who’ve been arbitrarily detained to be released immediately.
CHRI has learned from informed sources that the members of the press are being denied phone calls.
Based on media reports and its own sources on the ground, CHRI can confirm the following 23 reporters and journalists have been arrested in Iran since September 16, 2022:
Based in Tehran:
Niloofar Hamedi, Rouhollah Nakhaie, Fatemeh Rajabi, Alireza Khoshbakht, Mojtaba Rahimi, Vida Rabbani, Elahe Mohammadi, Elnaz Mohammadi, Hamed Shafeie, Ahmad Halabisaz, Iman Behpasand, Yalda Moayyeri, Mojgan Kavousi, Navid Jamshidi, Farshid Ghorbanpour, Aria Jafari, and Amirhossein Barimani.
Based in other cities:
Khosrow Kordpour and Masoud Kordpour (in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province), Mansoureh Mousavi (in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province), Batoul Balali and Samira Alinejad (in Sirjan, Kerman Province), Jabbar Dastbaz (in Divandarreh, Kurdistan Province), and Mehrnoush Tafian (in Ahwaz, Khuzestan Province), and Saman Ghazaali (in Mahaba, Kurdistan Province).
The following members of the media were already detained prior to the most recent crackdown.
Keyvan Samimi, Reza Mahabadi, Arash Ganji, Keyvan Mohtadi, Alireza Saghfi, Khosro Borojenni, Mehdi Salimi, Kasra Nouri, Aliyeh Motalebzadeh, Rozbeh Meshkinghalam, Amir Abbas Azarmvand, and Arash Ghalehgolab.
Niloofar Hamedi, a reporter for Shargh newspaper, was the first member of the media in Iran to publish an account of the incident that led to the hospitalization and eventual death of Mahsa Amini, 20, whose death triggered nationwide protests. She was detained shortly afterwards.
According to Iranian human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan, the judicial process against these detainees is being presided by Judge Mahmoud Hajimoradi, who is known for his close cooperation with the Iranian state security establishment.
CHRI calls on the authorities in Iran to immediately release all members of the press and all individuals who’ve been arbitrarily detained among ongoing protests.
*This article was revised on September 30, 2022, to update the number of media workers who were detained during current protests in Iran, and to correct the number of media workers who were already in prison.
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