Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009middle east and north africa: iranConflicts within the profession continued to hinder press freedom. In October,the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate considered whether to expel Hala Mustafa,editor-in-chief of the quarterly magazine Democratiya, after she met withIsraeli Ambassador Shalom Cohen in Cairo, according to international newsreports. The Egyptian Journalists Syndicate’s ban against traveling to Israel ormeeting with Israelis is considered by many leading journalists as a “weapon putin place by the syndicate” to control its members’ activities, Salah Eissa, editor ofthe cultural weekly Al-Qahira, told The Associated Press. The case was pendingin late year.Foreign journalists have also been targeted. In October, authorities preventedSwedish freelance reporter Per Bjorklund from entering the country, claimingthat he was planning to orchestrate a pro-Palestinian protest, according to newsreports. Bjorklund denied any intention of participating in or planning a protest.News reports said the action may have been motivated by Bjorklund’s extensivecoverage of Egyptian labor issues.IRANAmid the greatest national political upheaval since the 1979Islamic Revolution, Iran launched a full-scale assault on the media and the opposition.In mid-June, mass protests erupted in response to official election resultsshowing incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning by a large marginagainst his main opposition challenger, reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The governmentresponded with a wide-ranging and cruel campaign to suppress dissent.As protests against perceived electoral fraud spiraled into mass demonstrations,Iranian authorities threw dozens of journalists behind bars (where many were reportedlytortured), shuttered and censored news outlets, and barred foreign journalistsfrom reporting. During the protests and crackdown, blogs and social mediasites became front-line news sources. The crackdown increased the level of repressionin a regime already hostile toward the press, and followed the months-longimprisonment of an Iranian-American freelance journalist, Roxana Saberi.Saberi’s detention, as well as the arrests of three American hikers who strayedacross the Iraqi border in July, played out against a backdrop of internationaldiplomatic wrangling over Iran’s nuclear program, leading some to surmise thatIran’s authorities might see U.S. detainees as useful tools in negotiations. WhileIranian officials have long argued that the country’s nuclear program is for civilianelectricity generation only, and that uranium enrichment is Iran’s right underthe Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, international policy-makers have grownincreasingly concerned that Iran’s enrichment program is aimed at weapons pro-duction. The U.S. administration of President Barack Obama has alternateddiplomatic overtures to Iran with threats of punitive measures such as tighterinternational sanctions.Signs that Iranian authorities would seek to stifle the free flow of informationabout the presidential election emerged nearly immediately. SMS text message servicewas disrupted starting hours before the polls opened on June 12, and mobilephone service was shut down on June 13, the day election results were released. Inthe days after the disputed vote, Iranian security forces and members of the paramilitaryBasij militia assaulted and harassed journalists attempting to cover escalatingpublic demonstrations. Authorities clamped down on foreign media coverage,jamming the BBC’s Persian television and radio service and the U.S. governmentfundedRadio Farda, and shutting the Tehran bureau of Dubai-based, pan-ArabAl-Arabiya television indefinitely after accusing the station of bias.Foreign journalists were ordered not to cover the protests or any “news events”not announced by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Several journalistsworking for foreign media were detained and their tapes, equipment, andother work products were confiscated. Press cards were declared invalid, and Iranianauthorities rejected requests by foreign journalists to extend their one-weekvisas. Foreign journalistst o p developments»»Dozens of journalists are detained inmassive post-election crackdown.»»Numerous critical newspapers, Web sitescensored or shut down.key statistic2 3Journalists imprisoned as ofDecember 1, 2009.who had been invited bythe government to coverthe elections left the countryas their visas expired,or were expelled even beforethis could happen.Restricting the foreignpress appeared toserve the dual purpose oflimiting coverage of internalupheaval and thegraphic abuse of protesters, while pinning the unrest on Western interferencein Iran’s internal affairs. On June 19, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneicalled foreign media “evil” and accused them of attempting to divide the people ofIran. These accusations fed into wider official allegations that protests stemmedfrom a conspiracy abetted by the CIA, Britain, Israel, and exiled Iranian groups.Five days after the vote, two Tehran-based newspapers were barred frompublishing by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The daily Hayate No had planned to run a front-page article about the protests, and the dailyAftab e Yazd would have had a front-page picture of defeated reformist candidateMousavi. At least three other local newspapers didn’t appear on news-212213