The Canadian-Iranian reporter, Iran correspondent for Newsweek magazine, was released on bail by the Iranian authorities in October 2009 and left the country. Index on Censorship, Newsweek, Committee to Protect Journalists and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression campaigned for Bahari’s release (picture on the left) after he was detained on 21 June 2009 in the aftermath of last year’s disputed presidential election during Iran’s post-election crackdown on the media.
New sentence in absentia
Bahari discovered his sentence on 9 May 2010, after Iran’s security services informed his family.
– Five years imprisonment for gathering and conspiring against the security of the state (for taking part in the demonstrations after the presidential election).
– Four years for collecting and keeping secret and classified documents (for keeping a court document regarding Freedom Movement of Iran given to him by one of the leaders of the group).
– One year for propagating against the system (for Bahari’s post-election Newsweek articles).
– Two years for insulting the Supreme Leader (for a private e-mail he sent in which Bahari said Khamenei has learnt from the Shah’s mistakes).
– Two years and 74 lashes for disrupting public order (for filming the Basij shooting at people).
– Six months for insulting the president (for someone tagging a picture of Ahmadinejad kissing a boy on Bahari’s Facebook wall. The authorities said that the picture implied that the president was a homosexual).
Bahari expressed surprise that none of the charges he was interrogated over – including espionage, paving the way for a velvet revolution, contacts with Jews and Israelis, improper sexual conduct and connecting various reformist leaders to western governments – are mentioned in the sentence.
Anniversary of the election
He suggested the sentence and the wave of other sentences and arrests made on the eve of the first anniversary of the election are supposed to scare people from taking part in the demonstrations, and from reporting them.
Bahari recently headed the Our Society Will Be A Free Society campaign, with events aimed at building pressure for the release of writers and journalists in prison in Iran.
Prisoners of conscience
New arrests were made last week in Iran. Those recently imprisoned include Maziar Khosravi, the editor of Ham-Mihan website, Maryam Abbasinejad, a student activist, and Mohammad Oliyayifard, an attorney, all sent to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison.
Since the June 2009 elections, the arbitrary arrests of journalists in the traditional media, ‘citizen journalists’ who use technology to expose human rights violations and bloggers have drastically increased.
Azad Tribune initiative
Alongside Azad Tribune a website dedicated to Freedom of Expression in Iran, organization ARTICLE 19 has also launched a Facebook page: ‘Freedom of Expression in Iran – Azad Tribune’ with articles, news updates, and interviews, and which can also serve as a forum for discussion and debate.
Recent updates to Azad Tribune include:
– 100 Years in Pursuit of Freedom of Expression by Potkin Azarmehr who explores the ongoing challenges faced by Iranians over the last century in their struggle to achieve their right to free expression.
– A link to ‘Haystack’: “a new program designed to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran”.
– A joint statement with Amnesty International calling for the Iranian government to immediately and unconditionally release the journalists and bloggers detained as prisoners of conscience.
– An interview with Maziar Bahari, who talks about his ordeal, the situation in Iran and the recent threats faced by his family and him.
Visit Azad Tribune. Visit the Azad Tribune Facebook page. Find out more about Haystack.
For more information please contact: Amir Bayani, Iran Programme Officer, amir@article19.org, +44 20 7324 2500.
Related links:
Threats against Iranian reporter Maziar Bahari
Story from Iran: There is no difference between journalism and intelligence
Iran: Leading journalist detained without charge, health concerns
