(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a renewed crackdown on the online press following the 10 October 2004 arrest of Omid Memarian on the orders of the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office’s Ninth Chamber. Memarian was detained for posting articles on several reformist websites. Three other journalists are currently in custody for the same reasons. “In a country […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned a renewed crackdown on the online press following the 10 October 2004 arrest of Omid Memarian on the orders of the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office’s Ninth Chamber. Memarian was detained for posting articles on several reformist websites. Three other journalists are currently in custody for the same reasons.
“In a country where the independent press has to fight for its survival on a daily basis, online publications and weblogs are the final media outlets to fall under the clutches of the authorities. With eight months to go before the presidential elections, the Iranian authorities are now trying to spread terror among online journalists,” RSF said.
Memarian, Shahram Rafihzadeh, Hanif Mazroi and Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi are accused of “[spreading] propaganda against the regime, threatening national security, incitement to rebellion and insulting leading figures in the regime”.
A spokesman for the Iranian Justice Ministry, Jamal Karamirad, said the journalists would go on trial shortly in Tehran. The journalists’ families have not been allowed to see them since their arrests and they have been denied legal representation.
All four journalists were referred to in a recent article that appeared in the conservative daily “Kayhan”, which attacked certain foreign governments’ presumed support for a “network of webloggers seeking to overthrow the regime”.
Former reformist deputy Mohssen Armin said that about 20 people, not only journalists, had been arrested in a “crackdown against Internet use.”
