Iran International
The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) spokesman threatened Iranian journalists this week not to help the enemy with their work, meaning to avoid critical reporting.
"Creating hope against the hostile media’s attempts to cause disillusionment is one of the most important missions of those working in the media," stated Ramezan Sharif during a ceremony on Monday, held in honor of National Journalists Day (August 8).
President Ebrahim Raisi visited the state broadcaster (IRIB), a massive organization with over 40,000 employees, to express his appreciation for their work, ahead of Journalists Day. In a brief speech, he asserted that his government listens to criticism.
However, Iranian journalists are currently remembering two colleagues who have been imprisoned for almost a year due to their reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody in September 2022. They are also paying tribute to over a hundred other journalists who have been arrested since then and handed various punishments, including prison sentences, bans on using mobile phones and social media, travel restrictions, and even lashes.
Several newspapers, including Shargh, Ham-Mihan, and Etemad, dedicated articles on Monday to Niloofar Hamedi, a reporter from the reformist Shargh newspaper, and Elaheh Mohammadi, a reporter for the reformist Ham-Mihan.
These two young women were the first journalists to cover Amini’s story, which sparked widespread protests across the country from mid-September to early January.
Under the headline "Journalists More Abandoned Than Ever," with photos of the imprisoned journalists displayed on its front page, Ham-Mihan, a newspaper not directly controlled by the government, highlighted the intensified lack of freedom of speech and job security that journalists have faced in the past year. The newspaper stated that journalism has now become a "high-risk" profession.
Since last year’s protest movement, the press has had to contend with "professional claimants" who scrutinize newspapers daily to find reasons for legal action. Ham-Mihan added that authorities expect both print and online media to align only with the views of those in power.
A photo taken by Hamedi at the hospital where Mahsa Amini was in a coma in 2022, with her parents embracing her, rapidly spread across social media platforms. Amini had been fighting for her life for three days after sustaining injuries during her arrest by the morality police for wearing her hijab “improperly.”
Mohammadi in turn managed to travel to Amini’s hometown of Saqqez in western Iran to report on her funeral on September 17, which thousands attended.
The two journalists, accused of being CIA agents by the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence organization (SAS), faced charges of propaganda against the regime and conspiracy to commit acts against national security.
Hamedi and Mohammadi were tried behind closed doors in June and are awaiting sentencing. Since their arrest over 310 days ago, they have been denied family visits on many occasions, have never been granted furlough, and have been denied access to an attorney during their trials.
Dozens of other journalists are currently awaiting sentencing. Some have been banned from journalism, including Etemad newspaper’s managing director, Elias Hazrati, who was recently prohibited from any media work for a year.
Elaheh Mohammadi’s twin sister, Elnaz Mohammadi, who has also been a journalist for over a decade, told Etemad newspaper that her sister and Niloufar Hamedi were driven by their commitment to society and their calling as journalists.
“There is pain, and it’s so heavy that it diminishes hopes for the future of journalism in Iran. But I must say, the light is still alive and shining,” she said.
“Journalists’ Day is still a good occasion for us to remind ourselves of what is happening to the media in the country, how much we have to self-censor, and sometimes not do what we thought was one hundred percent right,” Niloufar Hamedi’s husband, Mohammad-Hossein Ajorlou, told Etemad.
Government pressures on journalists are forcing them to leave the country, pursue other jobs if they choose to remain in Iran, or compromise the quality of their work to avoid trouble if they continue as journalists, Ajorlou added."
Over the past three weeks, the intelligence ministry and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) intelligence organization (SAS) have been reaching out to individuals who were arrested during the nationwide anti-regime protests. They are warning them not to participate in any demonstrations on the anniversary of the protest movement, according to sources in Iran who spoke to Iran International.
Those summoned by the intelligence bodies have been asked to sign pledges to stay at home for a week, and some have even been required to take time off from work, ensuring their absence from any protests. They have been threatened with arrest if they are found engaged in any pro-protest movement activities in public or on social media.
The regime has also increased pressure on the families of those killed in the protests and on the lawyers representing them, including Saleh Nikbakht, a veteran human rights lawyer who represents the Amini family. Nikbakht is under prosecution for giving interviews about the case to foreign media and has been charged with spreading propaganda against the regime.
On July 5, an independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran submitted a report to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General, urging the Iranian government to “end its continuing crackdown on peaceful protesters” and to halt the wave of executions, mass arrests, and detentions since Amini’s death. The report stated that Iran must also “respect, fulfill, and protect the rights of all people in Iran, especially women and girls.”
Over the past few months, various officials have expressed concerns about the potential for more protests to begin on or around the anniversary of Amini’s death.
In an address to governors from across the country on June 16, Interior Ministry Political Deputy Mohammadreza Gholamreza warned that the anniversary of Amini’s death, coupled with the opening of schools and universities a few days later, posed a potential danger of fresh protests that could impact the public’s interest in the upcoming parliamentary elections on March 1st.
Speaking to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s official website on June 19, Brigadier General Mohammad Kazemi, head of SAS, claimed that intelligence organizations from nearly twenty foreign countries – including the United States, Israel, European powers, as well as Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries – had been involved in instigating protests in Iran. Kazemi asserted that Mahsa Amini’s death had only “fast-tracked the enemy’s planning.” He further claimed that the enemies are pursuing the same strategy and are counting on the upcoming elections as a favorable opportunity to execute their plans.
Last year’s deadly crackdown by the regime during the protests resulted in the deaths of 500 civilians, with thousands more injured and tens of thousands arrested. The regime has never released any official figures nor taken responsibility for any of the deaths.
Many of the detainees were released on bail and are still awaiting trial. Thousands of others were pardoned by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February. So far, seven protesters have been executed, and several others are awaiting death sentences that have been imposed on them.
In March, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei claimed that 22,000 individuals had benefited from the amnesty.
Rights organizations, however, have reported that some of those who had been pardoned and released from prison were later prosecuted on new charges and are awaiting trial now.