Persianblog Manager Arrested

Following reports of the arrest of a former presenter from the 'Manoto' network and the summons of the editor-in-chief of the 'Roo-be-Roo' magazine in recent days, the ISNA news agency reported, citing an unnamed 'informed source', that Mehdi Bootarabi, the manager of Persianblog, was arrested on Monday, May 15. This news agency announced that Mr. Bootarabi was also arrested in 2009 and has a case pending in the judiciary. Mr. Bootarabi is mentioned as someone close to Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the candidates who protested the presidential election of that year. Azam Saghti, Mr. Bootarabi's wife, is also a founding member of the National Trust Party. Mr. Bootarabi was also arrested in 2007. After his arrest, some conservative websites, including the 'Alif' website, claimed that 'he was arrested due to possible connections' with Alireza Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense in Iran, who served as the administrative-financial deputy of Persianblog after leaving the ministry. Alireza Asgari, the deputy of Ali Shamkhani, the defense minister during Mohammad Khatami's government, disappeared two days after traveling from Syria to Turkey on December 6, 2006. Persianblog was the first free Persian blogging service launched in early 2002 by three student youths named Ata Khalighi, Reza Hashemi, and Behrang Fooladi, and it was well received by Iranian youth. In 2004, coinciding with the beginning of the arrest of several bloggers, the initial managers of Persianblog sold the site to Mehdi Bootarabi and gradually distanced themselves from the collection. During the 2005 presidential election and the city council elections in December 2006, Persianblog was part of the advertising for the National Trust Party and candidates close to reformists. In recent days, other reports of the arrest and summons of journalists have been published. Some websites reported that the Revolutionary Guards had filed a complaint against Soroush Farhadian, the editor-in-chief of 'Roo-be-Roo' magazine and a former journalist for reformist media. Meanwhile, ILNA news agency reported on Sunday that Mr. Farhadian was summoned to the first branch of the Arak prosecutor's office 'due to a complaint from a military institution on charges of propaganda against the regime and actions against national security' and was released on bail after being informed of the charges. Several news websites in Iran, including 'Jahan News' affiliated with Alireza Zakani, a member of parliament, also reported on Saturday the 'arrest' of Mansoureh Hosseini, a 'former' presenter of the 'Manoto' television network. Ms. Hosseini's family and the Manoto network have not reacted to these reports. In May, Afrin Chitsaz, Ehsan Mazandarani, and Ehsan Safarzadeh were sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison after being arrested last November. The trial of Eisa Saharkhiz, another imprisoned journalist who was arrested alongside these journalists, has not yet been held. Davood Asadi, the brother of journalist Hooshang Asadi, who was also arrested with these journalists, has been sentenced to five years in prison. Despite numerous reports of the arrest and imprisonment of journalists, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the prosecutor of Tehran, claimed on Monday, May 15, that 'we have the highest security for journalists within the country' and that the crimes of journalists currently in custody in Iran are 'related to internal and external security of the country.' According to a report by Reporters Without Borders, Iran, with '34 imprisoned journalists and citizen journalists', is one of the five largest prisons in the world for media activists. China, Egypt, Turkey, and Eritrea are other countries with the highest number of journalists in their prisons. Iran was ranked 173rd in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index among 180 countries surveyed by Reporters Without Borders, and in the 2016 ranking, it climbed only four places to rank 169th. Although the analysis by Reporters Without Borders indicated that this four-place increase was not due to an improvement in freedom of expression in Iran, but rather due to a worsening situation in several other countries.