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This is a guest post by Jenni Hulse
Last night, Index on Censorship hosted a screening of An Iranian Odyssey: Mossadegh, Oil and the 1953 CIA Coup, directed by Canadian-Iranian journalist and filmmaker, Maziar Bahari.
The film played to a full house, with latecomers finding room in the aisles. The atmosphere felt particularly celebratory as the screening had originally been arranged as part of a campaign for Bahari’s release, after he was detained in Tehran’s Evin prison in June. Happily, he was freed without charge on 17 October and allowed to return to the UK.
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An Iranian Odyssey: Mossadegh, Oil and the 1953 CIA Coup, directed by Maziar Bahari
19 November 2009
6.30pm-8.30pm
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA
Film screening followed by panel discussion chaired by Malu Halasa, with anthropologist and filmmaker Ziba Mir-Hosseini and filmmaker and editor Simon Ardizzone.
An Iranian Odyssey tells the story of the CIA coup that toppled the government of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and laid the foundations for the continuing stand-off between Iran and the West.
It is directed by filmmaker and journalist Maziar Bahari, who was detained without charge in Tehran for nearly four months while he was reporting on the fallout from the elections. He was released on 17 October.
To reserve a place call 020 73242 570 or email [email protected]
Kian Tajbakhsh, an American-Iranian academic, was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison on 20 October for his alleged role in anti-government protests following President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election. He was arrested on 9 July, and was the only US citizen detained in the government’s post-election crackdown. Despite appeals for his release, notably from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Tajbakhsh received the longest prison sentence yet handed down in the mass trial of more than 100 opposition individuals. Tajbakhsh’s lawyer plans to appeal the conviction. (Guardian, BBC)
Journalist Saeed Hajjarian was freed from Evin prison in Tehran on 30 September after paying bail. Hajjarian was arrested at his home on the night of 15 June. Hajjarian is the former editor of the now-closed Sobh-e-Emrouz newspaper, which backed President Khatami’s programme of reforms following his 1997 election victory.
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