Reporters Without Borders: Election Candidates Must Commit to Improving Information Freedom

On Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders issued a statement urging candidates in Iran's presidential election to clearly express their commitment to improving the state of information freedom in the country. This request was made in a statement released on Wednesday, May 17, ahead of the twelfth presidential and city and village council elections, noting that similar requests were made prior to the eleventh presidential election in 2013. Reporters Without Borders pointed out that after four years, these requests for improving information freedom in Iran remain relevant, adding that despite a decrease in the number of press seizures by the Press Supervisory Board, President Hassan Rouhani's promises for 'change in favor of freedom of expression and the press' have not been fulfilled. The organization highlighted that the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, under the command of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, bear primary responsibility for suppressing independent information. It added that Hassan Rouhani, who is constitutionally tasked with overseeing the enforcement of the constitution, could have ended this situation. The statement also mentioned that the Ministry of Intelligence under Rouhani's government is involved in 'suppressing media and detaining critical journalists.' Reporters Without Borders called on the presidential candidates to commit to the unconditional release of 28 imprisoned journalists and bloggers and to fundamentally reform media laws. The organization emphasized that fundamental reform of Iran's press law should particularly address areas such as 'decriminalizing press offenses to guarantee against the arbitrary detention of journalists and ensuring freedom of expression without discrimination based on language, religion, and political beliefs.' According to the statement, the current law 'allows information activists to face baseless charges such as acting against the regime, insulting the leadership, and spreading false news,' while also forcing online media to obtain licenses. Reporters Without Borders further urged presidential candidates to guarantee journalists the right to form associations and unions and to ensure the right to know and access the internet freely, without filtering and control. The final request from Reporters Without Borders was for candidates to commit to ending the culture of impunity in the country. The statement noted that those responsible for the murders of critical journalists, such as Ebrahim Zalzadeh, Majid Sharif, Mohammad Mokhtari, Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh, Pirouz Davani, Zahra Kazemi, Aifer Sarcheh, Omidreza Mirsiafi, Alireza Eftekhari, Haleh Sahabi, Hoda Saber, and Sattar Beheshti, should not remain unpunished. According to Reporters Without Borders, the Islamic Republic still holds 27 journalists and citizen bloggers in prison, making it one of the five largest prisons in the world for media activists; additionally, Iran has the largest prison in the world for female journalists and bloggers, with six imprisoned. The organization also pointed out that in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index, Iran ranked 165 out of 180 countries. Earlier, according to the International Federation of Journalists, 29 members of the European Parliament on May 12 had called on the Iranian authorities to release journalists, political prisoners, and managers of Telegram channels. In a letter addressed to Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, they requested that these demands be communicated to their Iranian counterparts and conveyed that further development of relations between the EU and Iran would only be successful if accompanied by respect for rights and improvement of the situation for the Iranian people.