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Call for release of four journalists held
in Iranian Kurdistan
14.3.2007
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March 14, 2007
Reporters Without Borders today called for the
release of a total of four journalists held in
Iran’s Kurdish northwest (Iranian Kurdistan) after
the arrests of Kia Jahani on 24 February in Marivan
and Aso Salah on 8 March in Kurdish city of Sanandaj.
Two others arrested earlier, Adnan Hassanpour and
Kaveh Javanmard, are still being held without being
allowed visits.
“The situation of journalists in the Kurdish part of
Iran has become even worse,” the press freedom
organisation said. “With increasing frequency, they
are being arrested arbitrarily and held
incommunicado without the authorities feeling it
necessary to inform their families or provide them
with a lawyer. We call for their immediate release
as no evidence of any guilt has been produced.”
Jahani, who was arrested without any reason being
given on 24 February in Marivan (near the western
border with Iraq), has for many years been a
contributor to the Kurdish-language television
station Kurdistan TV.
Salah, who works for the weekly Didgagh, was
arrested 12 days later by intelligence officials in
Sanandaj, the capital of Kudistan province, while
covering an authorised demonstration marking
International Women’s Day. As he suffers from
asthma, his family took his asthma medicine to the
prison at the request of the prison authorities.
Hassanpour, a journalist with the weekly Asou who
was arrested outside his home on 25 January, is
still being held in Mahabad prison without being
able to receive visits from his family or lawyer.
There is also no word of Javanmard of the weekly
Karfto, who has been held in the main Sanandaj
prison since his arrest on 18 December. It is not
known what charges may have been brought against
either of these two journalists.
The Press Authorisation and Surveillance Commission,
an offshoot of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic
Orientation, meanwhile suspended the
Kurdish-language weekly Payam Kurdistan on 11 March
for “spreading separatist ideas” after its latest
issue included a map of “Greater Kurdistan.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to be the
Middle East’s biggest prison for journalists, with a
total of seven detained.
rsf org
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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.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
KDPI
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran in Kurdish
(Hîzbî Dęmokiratî Kurdistanî Ęran) is a Kurdish
opposition group in Iranian Kurdistan which seeks
the attainment of Kurdish national rights within a
democratic federal republic of Iran. The current
General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan is Mustafa Hijri
More about KDPI- Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan
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