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Maziar Bahari and Jo Glanville on Channel 4 News
Maziar Bahari explains why he’s reporting Press TV to Ofcom
Iran: Beyond Twitter, the new revolution
Iran’s “green movement” will be reborn in small media, says Mahmood Enayat
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Press TV under investigation
The Independent reports this morning that Ofcom is to investigate Iranian news channel Press TV. Index on Censorship contributor Maziar Bahari complained that the station broadcast an interview he gave while under interrogation in Tehran’s Evin prison in the aftermath of last year’s contested Iranian presidential elections.
Index editor Jo Glanville is quoted as saying that no self-respecting reporter should work for the channel, adding “The way they behaved by going into the prison in that way and essentially colluding with the torture and illegal detention of a journalist should finish their reputation once and for all in [the UK].”
Channel 4 News will be screening a special report on Press TV at 7pm tonight (10 June).
Jila Baniyaghoob jailed in Iran
Iran has jailed award-winning journalist Jila Baniyaghoob for one year. Her alleged crime: writing “propaganda” against the Islamic regime (i.e. reporting on last year’s disputed election results and subsequent protests). The conditions for imprisoned journalists in Iran are rarely comfortable. But more dramatic than a prison sentence, is the other aspect of this brave woman’s punishment: she has been banned from writing for 30 years. The nature of the punishment reveals how threatened Iran is by her reporting. It looks like an attempt to break her. I suspect it will have the opposite effect.
Every state sets some limits on what can be said or written. But to silence an individual’s voice entirely is an attack on the very notion of free expression.
As well as campaigning for an immediate lift on this sentence and ban, let’s make sure that one side effect is that Jila Baniyaghoob’s writing is read by many more people than would otherwise have read it and that her bravery is celebrated. The severity and crudity of the Iranian gagging measures suggest she has something very important to say.
Here is an example of Baniyaghoob’ courage writing on imprisoned journalists