IRGC Intelligence Arrests More “Infiltrating” Journalists

In a crackdown against Iranian journalists not associated with the hardliners, the IRGC Intelligence Department over the last 48 hours has arrested at least five journalists.

• Isa Saharkhiz, veteran journalist
• Ehsan Mazandarani, managing editor of Farhikhtegan newspaper
• Afarin Chitsaz, member of editorial board of Iran newspaper
• Saman Safarzaie, member of editorial board of monthly Andisheh Pouya
• Fifth journalist whose name has not yet ben revealed

Meantime, IRGC Intelligence Department said today that the “IRGC recently identified and arrested some members of a circle of media professionals engaged in a campaign against the Islamic Republic.” (Press TV, 4 November)

The news of the arrests came a day after IRGC Commander Gen. Aziz Jafari warned that a new “sedition” was underway following the nuclear deal.

“The enemy has started its work,” Gen. Jafari said. “We must understand the threat of infiltration and prevent certain action,” Jafari added during an event marking “Fight against International Arrogance and Imperialism Day.”

Hardliner website Dana carried an article against the detained journalists entitled “The Discovery of the American Infiltration Network in Iranian Media.”

The phrase “infiltration network” was coined by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a speech on 17 August 2015, when he warned that the Americans hoped to find “a way to establish their influence inside the country.” He added that the authorities “will block them and will continue to block them in no uncertain terms.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a reference to the arrests, warned today against “exploitation” of the supreme leader’s remarks on “foreign infiltration.”

File photo: Isa Saharkhiz (Twitter)

Rezaian, Washington Post Journalist, Faces Spy Trial

Jason Rezaian, the Iranian-American correspondent for the Washington Post in Tehran, today was charged with espionage and collaboration with “hostile governments,” and will face a so-called trial in a revolutionary court. The Washington Post branded the decision to charge Rezaian absurd.

The 39-year old journalist has been held for 9 months in solidarity confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. The charges against Rezaian reportedly include espionage, gathering classified information, and disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Rezaian’s lawyer, Leila Ashan, said the file against her client contains “no jurifiable proof,” and that she has seen no legal reason to continue his detention.

“(Rezaian) is a journalist and the nature of his work to have access to information and to publish it,” Ashan said. “He had no access to confidential information, directly or indirectly.”  (AFP, 20 April)

“The grave charges against Rezaian that Iran has now disclosed could not be more lucicrous,” said Washington Post’s executive editor Martin Baron. “It’s absurd and despicable to asset, as Iran’s judiciary is now claiming, that Jason’s work first as freelance reporter and then as The Post’s Tehran correspondence amounted to espionage.”

File photo: Jason Rezaian (AFP)

Iran Extends Detention of Jason Rezaian Without Charge

Human Rights Watch reported today that Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian’s detention has been extended for another two months. Sarah Lee Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch expressed concerns over the case:

“If [Iranian] authorities had evidence that Rezaian had committed a real crime, they should have charged him shortly after his arrest. At this point, they should simply release him.”

To read Human Rights Watch’s memorandum, please click here.

File photo: Washington Post’s Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian, held 4 months without being charges. His detention was extended for another two months. (Twitter)

Iranian Journalist, Yeganeh Salehi, Released from Prison

The Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi has been released from prison. She was released on bail late last week, but the announcement of her release came today. Her husband, Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent in Tehran, remains in jail. They were detained on 22 July by Iranian authorities and held without charge. Salehi is Tehran correspondent for the UAE newspaper, The National.

File photo: Yeganeh Salehi and Jason Rezaian in a photo before their detention in Tehran (Washington Post/EPA)

Twitter CEO Called Out Rouhani over Iran’s Twitter Ban

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo on Thursday tweeted at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is in New York attending the UN General Assembly, with a Twitter burn for the ages. (Time, 26 September)

Access to Twitter and Facebook is officially banned in Iran, but the country’s officials, including Rouhani and Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader, regularly and actively post their views on Twitter and Facebook.

Why Is Iran Detaining Jason Rezaian?

Laura Secor on Persistence of Iran's Security State

Laura Secor, a contributor at New Yorker, today has published a piece on Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent in Tehran, who was detained by Iranian security forces on 22 July, along with two other journalists, one of them his wife, and has not been heard of since. To read the article, please click here.

File photo: Jason Rezaian (Zoeann Murphy/Getty Images/The Washington Post)

Iran Jailed My Friends – Anthony Bourdain

“These people I interviewed in Iran clearly loved the country. So why did it put them in jail?”

Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN’s “Parts Unknown” and author of “Kitchen Confidential,” tells the story of his recent reporting from Iran, where he met Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi.

To read the story, please click here.

Photo credit: Jason Rezaian, left, and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, with Anthony Bourdain. Tehran, 2014. (Twitter/@thekarami)

Bahar Editor Arrested

Saeed Pourazizi, editor-in-chief of Bahar daily, was arrested today in Tehran and sent to the notorious Evin prison, ISNA reported. The newspaper was shut down on Monday by government censors.

In its 23 October edition, the paper had published an op-ed piece entitled, “Imam, a Political Leader or a Religious Model?”

Image credit: Bahar’s front page (Radio Farda)