Reporters Without Borders Criticizes Hassan Rouhani's Performance on Freedom of Expression in Iran

On Wednesday, September 22, Reporters Without Borders issued a statement ahead of the 71st United Nations General Assembly and President Hassan Rouhani's trip to New York for the meeting, once again criticizing the "pressure on media" and the detention of journalists in Iran. This freedom of expression advocacy organization condemned "censorship and repression of information freedom and the mismanagement of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran" in its statement. It noted that at least two journalists had been detained this week, and several others had been "threatened" or summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence or the judiciary. Reporters Without Borders mentioned Sedra Mohaghegh, the social secretary of the Shargh newspaper, as one of the journalists detained in recent days, with the Mehr News Agency accusing him of "collaborating with anti-revolutionary media" by preparing reports for them about the internal situation in Iran. Sedra Mohaghegh was arrested at his home by security agents on September 20, but the charges against him have not yet been announced by judicial authorities. According to Reporters Without Borders, Yashar Soltani, the director of the "Memari News" website, is another journalist who was arrested on September 18 after being summoned to the Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office. This freedom of expression organization also criticized the detention of Foad Sadeghi, the editor-in-chief of the news websites "Ayandeh" and "Baztab Emruz," as well as the filtering of the news agencies "Moj" and "Borna" and the websites "Poyesh" and "9 Sobhe." In the latest ranking by Reporters Without Borders regarding press freedom, Iran was placed 169th among 180 countries surveyed. Reza Moieni, the head of the Iran section at Reporters Without Borders, described the information situation in Iran as "unfavorable" and accused Hassan Rouhani of failing to fulfill his electoral promises to bring about changes in favor of freedom of expression and the press. He held the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian judiciary responsible for the suppression of independent information and stated: "Hassan Rouhani, who is legally responsible for enforcing the Constitution, could have ended this situation, something he has not done to date. He preferred to open Iran's markets for foreign investment rather than open the prison doors for political prisoners." Reporters Without Borders also criticized the 21-month prison sentence issued for Eisa Saharkhiz, a jailed journalist, on charges of "propaganda against the regime and insulting the leader of Iran." Eisa Saharkhiz, along with three other journalists named Ehsan Mazandarani, Saman Safarzadeh, and Afrin Chitsaz, was arrested last November, and these three journalists were also sentenced to two years in prison each on security-related charges. Reporters Without Borders further accused the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran of violating international rights and breaching the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The issue of the detention of media activists, filtering, and the confiscation of newspapers in Iran has consistently been criticized by international organizations and human rights advocates in recent years. According to Reporters Without Borders, Iran, with at least 30 imprisoned journalists and bloggers, is one of the five largest prisons in the world for media activists. Nevertheless, some officials of the Islamic Republic, including Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the President and Foreign Minister of Iran, have emphasized in recent years that no journalist has been detained or imprisoned in Iran for their journalistic activities.