Iran must release all journalists being held solely for carrying out their legitimate work, Amnesty International urged after at least 14 reporters were arrested in the past three days amid police raids on newspaper offices.
The journalists are reportedly accused of cooperating with «anti-revolutionary» Persian-language media organizations outside Iran.
«This latest example of locking-up Iran’s journalists is a result of draconian restrictions on reporting which violate the right to freedom of expression and must be relaxed,» said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.
«All journalists who are imprisoned in Iran merely for peacefully doing their job should be released immediately and unconditionally.»
The latest to be arrested – Keyvan Mehrgan, formerly of the newspaper Shargh, and Hossein Taghchi – were reportedly arrested today.
Security forces stormed the offices of several Tehran-based publications at the weekend, according to Iranian media. Ten journalists were arrested in five simultaneous raids on Sunday, while two were reportedly arrested on Saturday. به خواندن ادامه دهید →