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Iranwire – The Iranian authorities’ ruthless crackdown on nationwide protests has left at least 62 journalists behind bars as of December 1, making the Islamic Republic the world’s worst jailer of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The New York-based media freedom watchdog said on December 14 that the figure would have been even higher had another 21 journalists detained after the start of the demonstrations 13 weeks ago not been released on bail ahead of its annual prison census date.
The record number of imprisoned female journalists– 22 out of the 49 arrested since the start of the protests are women – shows “the prominent role they’ve played in covering this women-led uprising”, CPJ said. By contrast, the 47 journalists imprisoned in Iran in December 2012 included just four women.
CPJ said Kurds “have borne the brunt” of the government’s crackdown on the protest movement, with at least nine Kurdish journalists among those in detention.
“During this year’s arrests, sources told CPJ of a pattern of predawn raids on reporters’ homes, with police seizing their devices and sometimes beating those they took into custody”, the group said.
“Often, their coverage disappears too. Many of their social media accounts – a key publishing platform in a country where most media are state-controlled – have vanished, either shut down by the government or preemptively deleted by journalists fearing retaliation for their reporting.”
The 62 journalists behind bars in Iran represent the highest number documented by CPJ for the country in the 30 years since it has issued its prison census.
Globally, the organization has found that 363 reporters were deprived of their freedom as of December 1, a new high that overtakes last year’s record by 20 percent.
Iran is followed by China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus on the list of top jailers of journalists.
