Attacks on the Press - Committee to Protect Journalists

attacks on the press in 2009journalists in prison: iranSaeed Laylaz, SarmayehIMPRISONED: June 17, 2009Laylaz, editor of the daily businessjournal Sarmayeh and a vocal critic ofPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’seconomic policies, was arrested athome on June 17, his wife, SepharnazPanahi, told the BBC Persian service.She said that officers searched theirhome and confiscated videotapes,hard drives, and letters.Laylaz was among more than 100opposition figures and journalistswho faced a mass, televised judicialproceeding in August on vague antistateaccusations, according to localand international news reports. Hespent 100 days in solitary confinementat Tehran’s Evin Prison beforebeing moved to a group cell, wherehe was denied newspapers, pen, andpaper, his wife told the Committee ofHuman Rights Reporters.Laylaz was charged with “congregationand mutiny against national security,propagation against the regime,disrupting public order, and keepingclassified documents,” according toMowjcamp, a news Web site supportiveof the defeated presidential candidateMir-Hossein Mousavi.After a two-hour trial in November,he was sentenced to 15 years in prison,according to the Human RightsActivists News Agency and onlineaccounts. His wife told the news Website Kalameh that the “classified document”that was a centerpiece of theprosecution was actually a publishedand widely available investigation intothe Iranian judiciary.Bahman Ahmadi AmoueeFreelanceIMPRISONED: June 19, 2009Amouee, a contributor to several reformistnewspapers including Mihan,Hamshahri, Jame’e, Khordad, Norooz,and Sharq, and the author of an eponymousblog, was arrested with his wife,Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, according to newsreports. Bani-Yaghoub, editor-in-chiefof the Iranian Women’s Club, a newsWeb site focusing on women’s rights,was released on bail on August 19, accordingto the BBC Persian service.Amouee was being held in Tehran’sEvin Prison, part of the time in solitaryconfinement, according to news reports.Farideh Ghayrat, his lawyer, toldthe Gooya news Web site that her clientwas arrested without a warrant and thatno charges had been filed against him.His wife said Amouee was denied accessto his family and lawyer for severalweeks, according to Mowjcamp, a newsWeb site supportive of the reformistcandidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.Issa Sahar-Khiz, freelanceIMPRISONED: July 3, 2009Sahar-Khiz, a columnist for the reformistnews Web sites Rooz Onlineand Norooz and a founding memberof the Association of Iranian Journalists,was arrested while traveling innorthern Iran, the association said ina statement.His son, Mahdi, told the news Website Rooz Online in mid-September thatthe family had met with the journalist inthe presence of prison officials. Sahar-Khiz told family members that he hadaccess to television and was allowed towalk outside his cell for exercise. Sahar-Khiz’s lawyer said that his client was beingcharged with “participation in riots,”“encouraging others to participate in riots,”and “insulting the supreme leader,”according to Rooz Online.Sahar-Khiz has had a long career injournalism. He worked for 15 years forIRNA, Iran’s official news agency, andran its New York office for part of thattime. He returned to Iran in 1997 towork in Mohammad Khatami’s Ministryof Islamic Guidance, in chargeof domestic publications. Sahar-Khizand a superior, Ahmad Bouraghani,came to be known as the architectsof a period of relative freedom for thepress in Iran. After he was forced toleave the ministry and was bannedfrom government service in a trial, hefounded a reformist newspaper, Akhbar-eEghtesad, and monthly magazine,Aftab, both of which were eventuallybanned. Sahar-Khiz wrote articles directlycritical of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,Iran’s supreme leader.Massoud BastaniFarhikhtegan and JomhoriyatIMPRISONED: July 5, 2009Bastani, a journalist for the reformistnewspaper Farhikhtegan and Jomhori-yat, a news Web site affiliated with thedefeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was arrested whenhe went to a Tehran court seekinginformation about his wife, journalistMehsa Amrabadi, according to localnews reports. Amrabadi, arrestedalong with two other journalists onJune 15, was released on August 25.Bastani was among more than 100opposition figures and journalistswho faced a mass, televised judicialproceeding in August on vague antistateaccusations, according to newsreports. In September, his lawyer, MohammadSharrif, told the Amir KabirNewsletter Web site that Bastani hadspent weeks in solitary confinement.On October 20, the news site Noroozreported that a court had sentencedBastani to six years in prison for “propagatingagainst the regime and congregatingand mutinying to create anarchy.”Bastani had been editor-in-chiefof the now-banned Neda-ye Eslahat(Voice of Reform) weekly.Marjan Abdollahian, HamshahriIMPRISONED: July 9, 2009The BBC Persian service and othernews outlets reported that authoritieshad detained Abdollahian, a photoeditor for the Tehran-based Hamshahrinewspaper. Six days after herarrest, she called her family to informthem that she was being held in EvinPrison, according to the news Website Rooz Online. No formal chargeshad been disclosed by late year.330331