The following is an internal appeal from Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) to IFEX members to join Our Society Will Be a Free Society campaign.

"Dear IFEX members:

We’ve signed on to the Our Society Will Be a Free Society campaign and ask that other members join too. The campaign website, in English, French and Farsi, can be found at www.oursocietywillbeafreesociety.org

The campaign was begun in response to the systematic rounding up and imprisonment of journalists, writers and bloggers in Iran. Freedom of expression groups from around the world have come together to petition the Supreme Leader to free the journalists and writers held in Iran.

The petition is on the website www.oursocietywillbeafreesociety.org and on Facebook. We are collecting signatures until 20 March 2010 to coincide with the Iranian New Year.

If you do want to join the campaign, we will add your name to the ‘Who Are We?’ section of the website. To join, we kindly request that you post the link to the campaign on your website and help us generate signatures to the petition (on the website or Facebook) by sending this invitation on to your lists and contacts.

Let us know what action you’ve taken and if you’d like to be added to the list of participating organisations by writing to CPJ’s Andrew Levinson at alevinson@cpj.org. Please provide a contact name and email address and you will also be added to the campaign list-serv.

Sincerely,

Committee to Protect Journalists

Index on Censorship

Reporters Without Borders

PEN American Center

International PEN

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

International Publishers Association

ARTICLE 19

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

International Federation of Journalists

National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

Norwegian PEN"

Find out more information about the petition at the Norwegian PEN website.

Related links:

Iran: petition drive calling for the release of journalists and writers

Free expression groups call on Iran to open door to UN rights experts