Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Iranian Judge Tries to Quell Internet Media Wave by Threatening Journalists 

The worst a lot of North-American journalists have to contend with is low pay (read: slow pay or even getting stiffed if you're a freelancer), office politics and having to fly economy class. What if, instead of having to defend covering a certain story in a meeting with traffic-stressed under-caffeinated coworkers, you were put in jail as a witness for the prosecution? What if Judge Crane, after charging Canadian Journalist Ken Peters with contempt for not revealing a confidential source, jailed Hamilton Spectator editor-in-chief Dana Robbins to 'prepare his testimony' against Peters?

RIGHTS: Iran Tries to Quell Internet Media Wave by Jim Lobe

"WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (IPS) - Iran's judiciary has threatened Internet journalists with torture and prison if they do not renounce accusations that authorities abused members of the electronic media and dissidents who were rounded up months ago.

According to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), the chief prosecutor of Tehran, Judge Saeed Mortazavi, threatened three recently released detainees with severe punishment if they did not cooperate with him in preparing a libel case against Ali Mazroi, the president of the Association of Iranian Journalists.

===deletia===

Conservatives, centered mainly in the judiciary have largely shut down most of Iran's independent mass media, particularly reformist newspapers and magazines, over the past year. As the more traditional outlets for activism and free expression disappeared, the Internet took on an increasingly important role for reformists.

===deletia===

In a public letter to President Mohammed Khatami on Dec. 10, Mazroi, who is a former reformist member of parliament, had himself implicated the judiciary in the torture and secret detention of more than 20 Internet journalists and civil society activists during a crackdown that began in early September. One of those detained was Mazroi's son.

The following day, Mortazavi filed charges against Mazroi and ordered that three Internet journalists -- Omid Memarian, Shahram Rafizadeh, and Ruzbeh Ebrahimi -- be detained as witnesses for the prosecution, according to HRW.

The three journalists and a fourth, Javed Ghlam Tamayomi, who had been in detention since Oct. 18, were brought to the prosecutor's office.

According to HRW's account, Mortazavi threatened the four with lengthy prison terms and torture if they did not publicly deny Mazroi's charges, and they were subsequently interrogated for the following three days.

On Dec. 14, the four were taken to a televised press conference to deny they had been subject to solitary confinement, torture or any ill treatment during their earlier confinement. Tapes from the conference were subsequently aired on government-controlled television in what HRW charged was a transparent effort to whitewash what had in fact taken place."