Press watchdog reports remorseless crackdown on Iranian media

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Iran's fall in the annual press freedom index

Reporters Without Borders says “relentless crackdown on the media” shows the “true face” of the Islamic Republic government.

The press watchdog issued a report in its website listing numerous actions taken against journalists in recent weeks.

They report that Mohammadreza Moghisseh, a pro-reform editor and journalist, was arrested for a second time and is currently in an unknown location; the one year imprisonment and thirty year ban from journalism sentence of another Iranian journalist, Jila Bani Yaghoub, was confirmed by the judiciary; and Mahssa Amrabadi, another journalist, was sentenced to one year in prison.

Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi and Massoud Bastani, husbands of Bani Yaghoub and Amrabadi, both also journalists, are already in prison with heavy prison terms.

Last week, Reporters Without Borders issued a report that ranked Iran at 175 from 178 countries in terms of press freedom, a steep fall from its 160 position in 2003.

In the past year and half, tens of Iranian newspapers and publications have been shut down and many journalists have been arrested while many others have had to flee the country.