Committee to Protect Journalists Calls on Islamic Republic to Free Iranian Journalist Shirin Saidi

On Thursday, May 9, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged the Islamic Republic to immediately release Shirin Saidi, an economic journalist, from prison. In its statement, the committee called on Iranian authorities to drop all charges against this journalist and to cease imprisoning media personnel for performing their journalistic duties. Shirin Saidi was arrested on November 24, 2013, on charges of 'conspiracy and gathering against national security.' According to news reports and a knowledgeable source, she was sentenced to five years in prison by Abolqasem Salavati, a judge at Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, on May 10. This source, who requested anonymity due to concerns about repercussions from the Islamic Republic, confirmed this news in a conversation with the Committee to Protect Journalists. According to him, Shirin Saidi has filed an appeal after the prison sentence was issued and hopes her conviction will be reduced in the appellate court. Carlos Martinez de la Serna, the program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, stated, 'Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Shirin Saidi and stop the arbitrary detention of media personnel.' He added that 'the lack of transparency regarding Shirin Saidi's arrest and her prolonged detention once again shows that the Iranian regime acts against the media without fear of any consequences.' Shirin Saidi participated in an international journalism workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the summer of 2022 and then went to Lebanon for a similar program before returning to Tehran. According to this knowledgeable source, Islamic Republic officials oppose the nature of these international journalism workshops. The Committee to Protect Journalists emailed the Islamic Republic's mission to the United Nations in New York, requesting a comment on Shirin Saidi's arrest and prison sentence, but received no response. In addition to Shirin Saidi's case, several other cases against journalists and media personnel in Iran have recently emerged. Behnam Samadi, Marzieh Mahmoudi, Asal Dadashloo, Hadi Kasai Zadeh, and Mohammad Parsi are among these Iranian journalists. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the President of the United States also called for the release of all imprisoned journalists worldwide.