CPJ urges Iran to stop arresting journalists, release Kayvan Samimi

Iran’s regime frequently uses bogus charges to imprison journalists and crack down on attempts of independent reporting.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
Prison cell block (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Prison cell block
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Iran should free journalist Kayvan Samimi and stop arbitrarily imprisoning reporters, the New York-based NGO Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
Samimi, 72, editor-in-chief of the center-left Iran-e-Farda magazine, started his prison term on Monday. His conviction on the charge of “colluding against national security” was affirmed by the Tehran Appeals Court on July 27, IranWire news website reported.
“Subjecting an elderly journalist to prolonged detention in the midst of a pandemic on unsubstantiated charges is inhumane and yet another example of Iran’s complete disregard for the work and safety of the press,” CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator Sherif Mansour said. “We call on the Iranian authorities to release Kayvan Samimi immediately,” he added.
Iranian authorities arrested Samimi on May 1, 2019, which was International Labor Day, for reporting on a demonstration in front of Tehran’s parliament building.
Iran’s regime frequently uses bogus charges to imprison journalists and crack down on attempts of independent reporting.
CPJ wrote: “In April 2020, Tehran Judge Iman Afshari convicted Samimi of ‘colluding against national security’ and ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ over his coverage of the protests, and sentenced him to six years in prison, at a hearing without the journalist or his lawyer present, according to that report.”
Samimi contested the April verdict and requested a new trial. In May, according to CPJ, he “was again convicted of collusion, but the propaganda charge was dropped and his sentence was reduced to three years in prison.”


Related Tags
Press