A Different Taste of World Press Freedom Day

The United Nations has designated May 3rd, or 14 Ordibehesht each year, as World Press Freedom Day. This day has a different flavor in every corner of the world. Journalists can live and work in Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, or even Jamaica, enjoying freedom, or they may be in Syria, Yemen, Eritrea, and Iran, struggling with arrest, threats, pressure, torture, imprisonment, and even death. The United Nations believes that the designation of May 3rd as World Press Freedom Day reminds governments around the world of their duty to respect and uphold freedom of expression. However, Reporters Without Borders, a non-governmental organization advocating for media freedom and journalists based in Paris, states that the state of freedom of expression and media freedom in the world is deteriorating. The tendency of some governments towards anti-freedom, efforts to completely control the media even in a European country like Poland, dire security conditions in various regions of the world, and religious tendencies opposed to freedom of expression are considered by Reporters Without Borders as the main reasons for the deterioration of media freedom indicators globally. This international NGO has classified Iran as one of the five largest prisons in the world for media activists due to the imprisonment of 32 journalists and citizen journalists. Iran also ranks 169th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders in 2016. Ahmad Ahrar, a veteran Iranian journalist in Paris, tells Radio Farda that the press and media were among the main victims of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and he praises Iranian journalists for 'restoring the press to its original state.' Nevertheless, Mr. Ahrar believes that the media and journalists remain 'under siege by the system and the government's ideology.' This veteran Iranian journalist also states that journalists in Iran are therefore 'forced to keep themselves within certain limits.' Kambiz Ghafouri, a journalist in Helsinki, refers to Mr. Ahrar's point as 'self-censorship.' Mr. Ghafouri tells Radio Farda: 'The biggest problem against media freedom in Iran is the existence of a repressive government. Repression leads to censorship, and journalists resort to self-censorship to avoid media closure and imprisonment.' This journalist considers the tendency of most Iranian journalists to align with either the reformist or conservative factions as another major challenge to media freedom and combating censorship in Iran, believing that 'the number of independent journalists' in Iran who are not affiliated with either faction is very small. The United Nations awards the World Press Freedom Day Prize each year to a journalist striving for freedom of expression. Ahmad Zeidabadi, an Iranian journalist, won this award in 2011. Mr. Zeidabadi was sent directly from prison to Gonabad last year around this time after spending six years in prison to serve a five-year exile in that city.