Freedom of Expression and Journalists' Situation in Iran, A Short Glance

Omid Habibinia’s speech in side session of the UN Human Rights High Council, 15th Sessions,September 28, 2010, Geneva

In Iran’s recent history, journalism and freedom of expression has always faced terror

During last year the Regime of Islamic Republic , has added the bloodiest page to its history of repressing journalism and freedom of expression. This can be compared to the Military coup that overthrow Mohammad Mosdegh’s democratically elected government, or the killing and repression of intellectuals and opponents in 80’s by both of the two wings in the Islamic Republic.

Since Iran’s last election “show”, many intellectuals, journalists, bloggers, human rights activists, political activists, women rights activists, religious minorities, ethnic minorities, and opposition groups were arrested, tortured, sexually abused, or vanished.

At least 150 people were killed in the streets during their peaceful demonstrations, some of them shoot dead by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRG) or by the regime’s Intelligent Services’ snippers. The snipers aimed people’s hurt or head and killed them instantly.

Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes, hide, or flee the country and leave their homes and belongings behind.

Tens of political prisoners were sentenced to death and many of them were executed. The Judiciary Brach of the Regime concentrated on implementing harsh laws, regulations, and punishments, in order to transmit fear among the journalists, and activists.

The intention of the Regime by creating another 80’s type social/political environment, was to unify the establishment to continue ruling. This only could be accomplished by repressing and killing people, opponents, and destroy the social movement that has been grown during last decade.

Here, my goal is to provide you a clear vision about the freedom of speech and journalism in Iran by looking at major points over the last year:

A. Freedom of Expression, General View

• The Islamic Republic of Iran two years prior to the last election “show” of June 2009, was preparing itself to repress the people and their opponents

.

• IRG and Basij (Militia Army) were preparing themselves by performing anti riot maneuvers which some were aimed at forcibly confronting protesters and armed insurrection

.

• Long before the election “show”, coordination between the different Regime’s branches and organizations (intelligence, judicial, and propaganda) was planned to repress any opposition

.

• Intelligence services of IRG, Police, as well as the Ministry of Intelligence, and National Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran (MISIRI) had a list of more than 4,000 names including political/social activists, active or passive opponents, and journalists whom were arrested by these intelligence services long before ending the election “show

”.

• Between June and September 2009, in Tehran alone, more than a thousand people were arrested, including journalists, bloggers, intellectuals, artists, students, female social and political activists as well as many others that were arrested in the street demonstration in spring and summer of the same year. Many of these people were in captivity without being charged or interviewed by the investigators for several months. People were only released after many of the families exhibited public pressure by means of large gatherings on the Judicial System. Few were released on excessive bail. Among these detainees, the ones that have had previous arrests or their names were on government’s black list due to affiliation with anti government, political or social activities, had a more dangerous situation in the prison system than others

.

• Some of these detainees had a history of arrests and support of political opponents during the 80’s. Therefore; they were savagely tortured to illicit forced confessions against their beliefs and to accuse others (the students and the left political activists) of being atheists or being anti Islamic Regime. According to Judicial Law of Islamic Republic of Iran, both of these accusations carry a sentence of death

.

• Some of the detainees were under a great deal of emotional and physical tortures, including rape and sexual abuse, while others that even did not vote in the last election were facing worse tortures

.

• In several cases, spouse or significant other of the journalist and the activist were arrested and kept as a hostage to force the journalist or activist to surrender herself/himself. In several cases the hostage were kept after the arrest of the person and even were tortured to force to illicit yet another false confession

.

• In several cases, the tortures were caused severe emotional and physical damages including paralysis, heart attach, traumatic stress disorders, and at least 15 reported deaths due to torture

.

• In addition, there is no news of the fate of dozens of detainees that were arrested in the street protests or at their homes after the election show.

.

• In addition to the death penalty for certain political and social activists including Kurdish teacher Farzad Kamangar, others that were arrested on Ashoora were charged with waging war against Allah and heresy

.

• In the recent months, the detention of ethnic and religious minorities has intensified and dozens of Baha’i leaders, along with many of the Christians, Sunnis, or followers of other religious groups including Islamic Sufi (Daravish Gonabadi) were arrested in the company with other members of the left party. There is no information available about their whereabouts

.

• While repressing the protest movement, the government simultaneously repressed the media by slowing down, and filtering the internet to stop people from accessing news and information about current events. Jamming of satellite transmission was also under taken

.

• On one hand, Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG), largely attached the internet websites, even oppositions’ e-mails and Facebook pages to disrupt journalists’ and activists’ efforts to communicate with people. On the other hand, IRG altered the protest movement and the news coverage (both locally and internationally) by publishing false news via the media against the movement.

B. Status of Journalists and Media:

• From the early morning of election show in the past year until now, close to 200 Iranian journalists and several foreign journalists has been arrested

.

• The names of several journalist has been black listed, only because they were doing their jobs under the control and supervision of the Iran's Islamic Regime

.

• Now nearly 50 journalists are detained and well over a hundred has been temporarily out on bail (sometimes over half million euros) until their court date and sentencing

.

• Most of these journalists were tortured and force to confess against themselves and others.

• The Regime’s interrogators want the journalists to admit that they have received money from the intelligent services of countries like United Staes, United Kingdom, and Israel, to conspire to overthrow the Regime. Also to admit that they have had unlawful sexual relationship with others, especially with prominent opponents or some former reformers

.

• Many of these detainees (journalists) like Ahmad Zeid-Abadi, Eisa Saharkhiz, Bahman Ahmadi Amooee, Emad-adin Baghi, Abolfazl Abedini, Masoud Bastani, Ahmadreza Tajik, and Hengameh Shahidi are living in very poor physical conditions and are at serious health risk. Any mention or objection to the torture results in an escalation in the level of violence by the interrogators. For instance, after the publicized sexual abuse of one of the journalists by the integrators, his sister and family were arrested, insulted, threatened, and tortured. He himself were subjected to more torture and pressure, including transfer to solitary confinement

.

• Since last year, over fifty newspapers and magazines have been banned, dozens of internet websites have been filtered out, and hundreds of blogs have also been blocked

.

• Now more than fifty Iranian journalists are hiding inside the country. Dozens of others are trying to flee the country due to the increase pressure, unemployment due to being placed on the black list.

• Since 22 nd of Khordad, al least 150 Iranian journalists have fled Iran. Half of them still are living under threats from Iranian Intelligence service

.

• Since last year, many filmmakers, documentary filmmakers, writers, artists, and intellectuals were arrested or have been banned from work. Many of these people have been banned from leaving the country

.

• There is a list including more than 200 people that have been banned from working in the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB

).

• Publications like music albums are facing broader restriction by implementing widespread censorship.

C. Current Outlook:

• While in Iran the freedom of speech and press are seriously endangered by the Regime, outside of Iran the journalists and social/political activists are pressured or threatened secretly or openly by both Iranian parties (conservatives and reformists

).

• Even abroad, freedom of speech for Iranian journalists is a challenge of staying independent, true to their professional values, and without benefit of associating with either parties’s media (reformists and conservative media

).

• While many social and human rights activists like Shiva Nazarahari are facing unprecedented sentencing, other journalists are also facing planned and organized attacks from the Regime’s repression machine

.

• As bad as the journalistic environment has been in Iran due to censorship in the Regime controlled media by both parties, It is now worse due to near extinction of true unbiased journalism in Iran. It is truly the darkest time of journalism in Iran. Almost everyday, there is news of new assets, tortures, and escapes of journalists

.

• Today the question is not the obvious censorship that is being forcefully imposed to Iranian journalists. The question is to be or not to be, death or life.

Where is my Facebook?

After nearly four years, my facebook account was disabled without prior notice. Certain people blame it on the Iranian regime's agents, arguing that in recent weeks other political activists have had their facebook accounts disabled as well; however recently I received a message from dogmatic Mousavi supporter who happily announced that my account was disabled after they reported it to the site’s administration.

As a result, I have lost all my contacts, notes, photos, videos, groups as well as audio files, all of which were posted on an account which had become a source of news and analysis for many Iranian activists as well as international journalists. As a journalist, losing contact with my nearly 3000 friends, most of whom fellow journalists, bloggers and activists, is a real disaster and has greatly affected my professional work especially in regards to my Iranian friends as I was depending on my facebook account as a means of communicating with activists and colleagues inside Iran.

A while ago, following a series of articles and interviews in which I had talked about Mousavi’s background, Ebrahim Nabavi (an Iranian journalist working for the Jaras website whose approach to reformist ideas is questioned by many because he favors a change within the framework of the current Iranian regime), wrote a note about me. In his note he defamed me and falsely claimed he ever knew me from Iran. From then onwards, I became the target of threats and other tactics by a group of dogmatic Mousavi supporters. I call them Sabzollahis because their tactics and use of language is reminiscent of Hezbollahis in Iran. I answered to Nabivi’s note in a note in which I had tagged 20 journalists who were common friends and were mostly shocked about Nabavi’s lies. Subsequently, Nabavi wrote to me and suggested that we refrain from further arguments. This was viewed by many of our mutual friends as an indirect apology; ironically his supporters became angrier, and one of his fans, who does not use his or her real name on facebook, (...Irani) called on others on Nabavi's wall to give a strong answer to me.

On May 19, in the middle of the night, I was unexpectedly logged off my facebook account by system. I logged backed in and changed my password. A few hours later, when I tried to log in to my page, I got a message informing me that my account had been disabled.

This is a tactic often used by Sabzollahis (fanatic Mousavi supporters) as well as Hezbollahis (government supporters); using proxies or other similar software to hide their IP addresses, they mass report a facebook or Youtube account, under several fake IDs. Unfortunately, since Facebook and Youtbe do not have Persian speaking experts to check the content of reports, the mere number of reports convinces them of the seriousness of the matter, leading to many accounts being unjustly removed or disabled.

Account Disabled



Your account has been disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

There have been other cases where an article written by Nabavi has led to open threats by his fans against opposition (the article acctulay wrote against me), websites or individuals. One example was when a group of Iranians protesters removed the Islamic republic’s flag at its embassy in The Hague replacing it with a flag with a picture of Neda Agha Soltan on it. I reported the news on the Freedom of Expression website. Nabavi wrote an insulting article on the Jaras website, called opposition "belie", mentioning me, insulting and condemning the protesters. The article sparked a strong reaction among the Iranians and as many as 1000 joined a facebook page condemning Nabavi’s article. The facebook page then came under threat by Sabzollahis and a few of the pages administrators had their accounts reported and disabled.

I have written to facebook on several occasions explaining that disabling my account is a clear violation of freedom of expression. I have received to replies to my letters, both of which in form of prewritten forms citing violation of the site’s rules as the reason for my account being permanently closed.

I strongly believe that such actions by Sabzollahis are no different than Hizbollahis in Iran. Many of my colleagues in Iran are in jail, in hiding or simply afraid to add me again to the list of their friends. I am truly disappointed that as a result of the closure of my account I have lost contact with my friends as well as the links that had been accumulated on the account before it was disabled.

In the past I had repeatedly been the target of regime’s agents and hackers who had tried everything ranging from making an account with my name to hacking into my emails. The fact that I have now become the target of similar tactics by the other wing of the regime (reformists), is clear proof that they are no different than their rivals when dealing with their critics. I am also sure that with or without facebook, my fight for freedom of expression in Iran will continue.

PS:
Wanna Help?
Sign this Petition: We Want Omid Habibinia's Facebook to Be Reactivated!
Send an Appeal to Facebook, appeals@facebook.com

My Appeal to Facebook:

.

from Omid Habibinia



to appeals+dad6dlt@facebook.com,


appeals@facebook.com,


disabled@facebook.com


date Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 4:05 PM


subject MY ACCOUNT

Dear Madam / Sir,

On May 19, 2010, I was logged in and using Facebook when suddenly I got logged off by the system. I was cautious of hackers and spies so I immediately changed my password and then I logged back in. A few hours later, I was not able to log in anymore. Then I tried to get help from Facebook after about 10 days, I received a message from Facebook informing me that my account has been disabled for violating website regulations. I find this action strange and unacceptable. I am a journalist with 20 years of experience. For most of my life I have been fighting for freedom of expression in Iran. I have committed no offense, unless it is considered an offense to express my political opinion or defend myself against aspersions.

The issue here is that some individuals who are supporters of the Islamic Republic regime, even if indirectly, are upset with my writing pieces. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that my Facebook profile content has alerted supporters of the regime. On February 2009, a regime agent created a fake account using my name and proceeded to add my friends, and when they accepted, he asked them strange questions. I reported the matter to Facebook and the account was deactivated.

In this case, I attempted to contact Facebook but received no response. Then my friends informed me that somebody on a another Iranian journalist who supportes a wing inside of regime, had requested on his Facebook wall for his fans to "report" my Facebook account. The mentioned journalist also wrote a Facebook note about me and spread many lies. I had no way to respond to the note but get disabled!

It is reported that a significant number of Facebook accounts belonging to other political activists and bloggers have also been disabled in the past few weeks. Accounts are disabled because 20 to 30 users at one time misuse the "report" option. At times, these same people make open threats in order to silence us.

I had 3,000 friends on my 4 year old Facebook. Most of them were colleagues. I had many notes, groups, photos, video clips, and used several applications. Facebook for me as a journalist was an invaluable online outlet. I used Facebook to spread news from inside Iran and to communicate with activists, bloggers, and journalists. My account was four years old. I am requesting from you to return my account to me so I can continue with my daily tasks on Facebook.

I strongly believe that Facebook should take responsibility for this unjust action to avoid falling into the trap of supporting members and supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran; a regime that has clearly demonstrated, especially in the past year, that it will suppress any voice that challenges. I also recommend that , use a Persian speaker expert and investigate the misuse of the "report" option, a tactic used against freedom of expression and journalists simply for doing their job.

I look forward to hear from you

The Nobel Peace Story!

The story begins in November when Barack Obama was announced the next Nobel Laureate in Peace.

I asked a total of ten intellectuals, poets, directors, and artists if they thought it would be a good idea to send an open letter to the committee in Oslo. The letter was to request an invite for the families of the victims from the protest movement to be invited to the ceremony.

Immediately, the idea received positive responses. We then decided to ask other artists and even political activists in exile to join us. Very soon we received over 100 signatures of mostly well-known dissenters in exile.

Despite the encouraging response, we also received a few negative reactions. A blogger in Stockholm ridiculed us and questioned why we would want to send a copy to the Nobel academy in Stockholm. The blogger also questioned why it was necessary to send copies of the letter to the EU foreign committee and the EU Parliament.

100 Iranian Intellectuals called for Protest Movement’s Victim Families Invitatiation to Nobel Peace Cermony

A member from the group who wrote the letter answered the blogger, "We will draw more attention to the current situation in Iran and this cause may contribute to that." Yet, the blogger still insisted on writing against me.

I also received negative feedback from a well-known satirist in London. He wrote to me: "This [letter] is only for amusement purposes and you are wasting your time." I answered that I knew this and explained how this could draw more attention to the human rights violations in Iran.

Surprisingly some famous leftist activists showed no sign of disagreement with sending a copy to US FM and some non- leftists didnt like it.

Even one of my friends who is a well-known lawyer and the daughter of a well-known author removed me from her friends list on Facebook.

It was obvious that some people did not agree with the idea. Since the American President was announced the winner of the Nobel Peace prize, some people were against sending a copy of the letter to the American Foreign Ministry.

However, for us, the only issue that mattered was to use the opportunity to draw more attention to the crisis in Iran.

Delivering the open letter was delayed significantly since it was not yet determined who should receive it. All polemics about who should receive the copy and how to send it caused a long delay. A few days before the ceremony I sent it to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo and nowhere else.

Perhaps the open letter was written at the wrong time since many main stream Persian media in abroad refused to publish or broadcast it; regardless of the many well-known names who signed it.

At the end, it proved difficult to find a large group of more than 10 intellectuals in the Iranian exile community who are able to work together. Even if they could, it was almost certain that they would be attacked verbally from other exiled Iranians, even friends. This is probably the reason why many people in exile prefer to work alone or in small groups.

In Persian we say that homework not yet written have no mistakes. But it seems like our homework are full of mistakes. While people in Iran are fighting in the streets, we cannot join together and perform our responsibilities by working as a united team; a real handicap for the Iranian community abroad.

Links:
The English Version (Facebook)
The Persian Version (Facebook)

Iran's Media Profile

A Short Review on Iran’s Media Profile

Omid Habibinia

Media Researcher, Lund University, Sweden

Modern communication has a history about 150 years in Iran, but form the early beginning all media facing censorship, dictatorship and suppression.

Here we could take a quick look at the general situation of communication profile, hoping it makes more clearly some facts about Iran.


Newspapers

Publishing the newspaper and journals as the first modern media about 177 happened by the government.


Since that date till now thousands of newspapers and magazines has published in Iran, but only governmental related newspapers could continue to publish.

The oldest newspapers in Iran is Etelaat which has 83 years and managed by the leader representative.

Total number of national newspapers: 64
Circulate of national newspapers: 1.800.000 per day (estimated)
Local newspapers: 111
Circulate of local newspapers: 300.000 per day (estimated)
Magazines: 3328
Circulate of magazines: 950.000 per month (estimated)
Ratio a newspaper for an Iranian over 17 years: one to 17.

Radio

Radio Tehran, The first radio station has began in May 1940 since that time till now only governmental radios are allowed broadcasting in Iran.

Radio channels: 13
(Iran, Tehran,Tejarat, Alborz, Sedai Ashna, Farhang, Quran, Javan, Payam, Salamat, Goftego, Varzesh.

Local Radio: 30

Television
Iran’s national TV has began since march 1967, before it, Irans first and last private TV broadcasting its program for Tehran and some major cities for a few years but due to the government pressure forced to stop and replaced with National Radio and TV.

National channels: seven (1.2.3.4. Khabar, Amozesh and Quran)

State TV: 20

International TV channels: six (Jame Jam 1,2, PressTV, Khabar, Alalam and Sahar)

Cinema

The first Iranian movie had screened in the second of January 1931 by Evanes Oganisians.

Film industry from the beginning pressured by harsh censorship by the government, but after establishing Islamic Republic the censorship wasted in many dimensions and gets structured.

All process of film making from pre- production to post production and screening are under governments control and should confirmed by authorities.

However every year some of products movies are not able to get screen license although all screen and production facilities are owned or regulated by the government.

Average of Iranian movies screening per year: 55
Movies shown in last year: 56

Movie Theaters. Less than 300
Average rate of going to cinema: less than three times per year for Iranians over 12 years in major cities.

Internet

Islamic Republic besides China is the notorious country in the world for censorship in Internet, also capturing, threaten and jailing online journalists and bloggers. Now the number of banned websites in Iran is over five millions.

Rate of Influence: More than 20%
Internet Users: About 18 millions

Alternative Media

Except entertainment Radio and TV channels inside and outside Iran, in recent years number of alternative media such as blogs, underground movies, videos and music has increased.
Theses alternative media exploring hidden voices of the society facing dictatorship in Iran.

Sat TV: 49 (at least ten others are on the way)
Radio (broadcasting from outside the country): 59 radio based on governmental budgets by foreign countries and more than 500 independent radio networks, mostly broadcasting on Internet.
Blogs: about three millions Persian blog (third in the world after US and China)

Audience

About 55% of Iranians speak Persian among their families, however 45% speaking other languages other than Persian as the first language at home.

More than 70% of the population is under 33 old, these structure occurred to more dynamics and interaction in mass communications.

More than 65% of house holders in the major and medium sized cities using Satellite TV, regardless it is forbidden and based on law, it users may facing fine, confiscating the stuffs and in second time jail.

State TV viewers are about 85% and state radio listeners about 9%.

Persian radios broadcasting from outside in the normal situation, based on the state polls are about 7%.

The most visiting News Websites inside Iran are: Irna, Isna and Tabnak and from outside are: BBC Persian, Radio Farda and Balatarin.

In 90% of houses at least there is a TV set and in 97% of houses at least there is a radio.

Mobile users in Iran (who sometimes capture videos and pictures of demonstrations, protests and some news events and upload them on sharing websites) are more than 23 million with 34% influence rate.

Internet influent rate is increasing in last year, exceeding other Middle East countries and expecting next year reaches to about 30%, while gaining access Internet and speed and other service is in primary process. Some of these problems back to officials durecels to providing high speed Internet and increasing the quality in fear of using it as exchange multi/media against the regime.

Iran has a top place in publishing books and music products in the Middle East, but the average of publishing them are not matched with the rate of potential audience who are usually are youth.

The most of books publishing in Iran are religious texts which presenting by governmental publishers.

At the same underground, illegal music albums and videos has huge number of customers at underground market in the country.

Some estimated saying the amount of money in this underground market for illegal videos (mostly onscreen or even pre-screening Hollywood movies and sometimes illegal copies of pre-screening of some Iranian movies) is much more than screening movies in Iran's movies theater for the whole year.

Please Note This Profile was written for a Research Institute in February 2009 and some of the statics may change until now.