Islamic Republic persists in persecution of journalists

Morteza Kazemian

Morteza Kazemian, Iranain journalist and senior member of the Association for the Defence of Press Freedom in Iran has been sentenced to one year in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary court in Tehran.

Mizan Khabar reports that Kazemian was convicted of “propaganda against the regime” citing his articles and journalistic interviews as evidence.

Kazemian, who is also a member of Iran’s Nationalist-Religious Council, was arrested in December and kept in solitary confinement for over 63 days. He was finally released last March on a $50,000 bail.

Kazemian has collaborated with several reformist newspapers in the past, many of which have been banned in the past year and a half of crackdown on Iranian media and journalists’ community.

Most recently Nazanin Khosravani, another Iranian journalist who has worked with a number of reformist newspapers was arrested on November 3.

Iranian government claims that it is facing in a “soft war” waged by the media and Iranian human rights activist against the image and integrity of the Islamic Republic.