Washington, D.C., September 22, 2022—Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all journalists arrested while covering mass protests around the country and restore blocked internet access to the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
CPJ has learned from reliable sources inside Iran that at least eight journalists were taken into custody this week as clashes between security forces and protesters have left several dead. Details of those arrested are sparse amid a near-total internet blackout and reports of major disruptions to phone networks and social media networks.
The protests began over the death in morality-police custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, arrested for allegedly violating the country’s conservative dress law.
“Iranian authorities must immediately release all journalists arrested because of their coverage of Mahsa Amini’s death and the protests that have followed,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour. “Iranian security forces must drop their repressive measures against the journalists telling this critical story and restore the internet access that is vital to keep the public informed.”
Those arrested include photojournalist Yalda Moaiery on Monday, September 19, and reporter Niloofar Hamedi on Wednesday, September 21.
Moaiery, writing on Instagram Stories from a van taking her to jail, said she was beaten and arrested while covering protests on Hejab street in downtown Tehran.
Hamedi was arrested after security forces raided her home and confiscated her personal devices, according to tweets from Hamedi’s lawyer Mohammad-Ali Kamfirouzi and her employer, the Tehran-based semi-reformist Shargh Daily.
Hamedi was among the first journalists to report on Amini’s hospitalization, exile-run news website IranWire reported.
CPJ’s sources in Iran provided the names of six other journalists arrested as of Thursday; CPJ is investigating the circumstances of their detention.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.