Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010journalists in Iran since June 2009, CPJ research found. Yet a review ofthe journalists’ actions that led to these charges and convictions yieldsactivities such as exposing the rape and torture of prisoners, reporting onstreet demonstrations, interviewing critical clerics and political analysts,and covering the activities of the political opposition.Mohammad Davari, a recipient of CPJ’s 2010 International PressFreedom Award and editor-in-chief of the reformist news website SahamNews, was serving a five-year prison sentence for documenting allegationsof rape and torture at the Kahrizak Detention Center. He was found guiltyof “mutiny with the purpose of disrupting national security.” Renowned author,journalist, and human rights defender Emadeddin Baghi was detainedon security charges after the BBC rebroadcast a two-year-old interview hehad conducted with Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a once-influentialcleric whose death in 2009 had galvanized government critics. Baghi, sentencedto six years imprisonment for that interview, suffered severe healthproblems in custody.“Among the most urgent needs in Iranian society is transparency andaccountability. And the Iranian judiciary has, unfortunately, become atool to prevent journalists from providing those things,” Hadi Ghaemi,director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, told CPJ.“Journalists who press for accountability and transparency are routinelyaccused of ‘acting against national security’ or ‘propaganda against theregime.’”In Bahrain, a gag order prevents coverage ofa widespread crackdown.In Bahrain, authorities said they were dismantling “a terrorist network”when they arrested hundreds of people beginning in August and continuingthrough parliamentary elections in October. Those detained includedpolitical activists, human rights defenders, and at least two journalisticbloggers who had been critical of government policies that marginalize thecountry’s Shiite majority.Independent scrutiny of the crackdown was made nearly impossibleby the government’s next action. Public Prosecutor Ali al-Buainain issueda gag order barring news media from reporting on the detentions. Adefense lawyer noted one exception: The press could publish governmentstatements on the case. The detainees, including bloggers Ali Abdel Imamand Abduljalil Alsingace, were charged with numerous crimes, including228