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Iran: Three online journalists arrested at
the airport
30.1.2007
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January 30, 2007
Three online journalists and women’s rights
activists, Tala’t Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaie and
Farnaz Seify, were arrested at Tehran airport on 27
January as they were about to board a plane for
India to undergo journalism training.
They were released the following afternoon after
being interrogated at Evin Prison, in the north of
the city.
Reporters Without Borders is also concerned about
the disappearance of journalist Adnan Hassanpour,
who was arrested by the authorities in Sanadaj in
Iranian Kurdistan on 25 January and whose family has
had no news of him since.
“The arrest of these online journalists demonstrates
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s security and
ideological paranoia which prompts him to ban all
contact between journalists and foreign
organisations and media,” the worldwide press
freedom organisation said.
“This incident is also revealing of the fear that
the women’s rights movement produces within the
regime”, it added.
Tala’t Taghinia, Mansoureh Shojaie and Farnaz Seify
were all due to undertake journalism training in
India, funded by a foreign organisation, along with
12 other people. Most of them are members of the
women’s cultural centre, an organisation which has
launched a petition calling for reform of laws that
discriminate against women.
The homes of the three journalists were also
searched and their computers seized. Although they
were released on 28 January the security forces told
them that they would be questioned again in the
coming weeks. Their computers were not returned to
them when they left the prison.
Tala’t Taghinia and Mansoureh Shojaie contribute to
several Iranian online publications including
Zanestan (city of women -http://herlandmag.net) and
Tagir Bary Barbary (Change to equality - http://we-change.org/),
which campaign for women’s rights. Farnaz Seify is a
journalist on the daily Sarmayeh and runs a very
popular blog in Iran, farnaaz.com, but which has
been inaccessible since her arrest.
Journalist Adnan Hassanpour, who was arrested in
front of his home on 25 January, works for the
weekly Asou. Publication has been suspended since
2005 on the orders of the Culture and Islamic
Orientation Ministry, because it carried articles
about the very tense situation in Iranian Kurdistan.
rsf org
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
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