Journalists' Letter to Rouhani Regarding the Situation of Imprisoned Journalist

One hundred Iranian journalists wrote a letter to Hassan Rouhani, the President, requesting follow-up on the status of Yaghma Fashkhami, a journalist from the Rozan newspaper, who has been in detention for two months. According to the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, these journalists emphasized in their letter published on Thursday, March 7, that despite the two months since the arrest of this journalist, 'the reasons and the rationale for this matter have still not been clarified by the relevant authorities according to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.' In their letter, these one hundred journalists addressed Mr. Rouhani: 'We ask the legal scholar President to take significant action regarding the follow-up of this case, considering his electoral promises about the job security of journalists and his responsibility in enforcing the Constitution.' Reports indicate that Yaghma Fashkhami, a political journalist for the Rozan newspaper, was arrested on December 23, just one day after the newspaper was banned. The Rozan newspaper, in its issue on Saturday, December 20, published articles commemorating the death of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, featuring his photo on the front page with the headline 'A Different Jurist.' The continued detention of Mr. Fashkhami comes despite reports that Shamsi Pourmohammadi, the editor-in-chief of Rozan, stated that the Tehran Prosecutor's Office had ordered the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance to lift the ban on this newspaper in the early days of this month. Since Hassan Rouhani took office, several publications, including the newspapers Bahar, Nashat, and Asman, have been banned by the judiciary or the Press Supervisory Board. In recent months, several other publications, including the newspapers 'Mardom Emruz,' the online newspaper 'Homa,' and the weekly 'Setareh Sob' have also been banned. One hundred sixty-seven Iranian journalists issued a statement in early Bahman protesting the bans on the newspapers 'Mardom Emruz' and 'Rozan,' as well as what they described as the 'illegal method of the serial banning and closure of the press.' Since the establishment of Rouhani's government, several journalists have also been arrested, including Jason Rezaian, a reporter for The Washington Post in Tehran, who has been in detention since July 22. Meanwhile, Siraj al-Din Mirdamadi, a journalist who reportedly returned to Tehran from France at the same time as Rouhani's inauguration, was arrested upon his return to Iran and ultimately sentenced to three years in prison. Currently, several journalists who were arrested and imprisoned following the protests against the 2009 presidential election, including Ahmad Zeidabadi, Masoud Bastani, Mehrdad Sarjouei, Alireza Raji, and Keyvan Samimi, remain in prison. Nevertheless, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, stated in an interview with CNN on Friday, September 26, that he does not believe anyone in Iran has been arrested for their journalistic activities. One hundred thirty-five Iranian journalists criticized Mr. Rouhani's remarks in a letter, describing them as 'distortion and denial of reality.'