On Sunday November 3, it was confirmed to The Associated Press (AP) by the US State Department that an Iranian-American journalist, Reza Valizadeh, has been detained in Iran for months. The imprisonment of Valizadeh came as Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the US embassy takeover and hostage crisis. Valizadeh’s detainment is reflective of Iran’s violence against journalists critical of the government’s state narratives, both within Iran and abroad. The State Department told the AP it was “aware of reports that this dual US-Iranian citizen has been arrested in Iran” when asked about Valizadeh.
“We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case,” the State Department said. Reza Valizadeh is a former reporter for the US Congress-funded Radio Farda, a Persian-language outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Following his resignation in 2022, he worked as a freelance journalist in exile with other Farsi-speaking media outlets. After sixteen years working in the United States, he returned to Tehran in 2024, posting messages in August which read “I arrived in Tehran on March 6, 2024. Before that, I had unfinished negotiations with the (Revolutionary Guard’s) intelligence department. Eventually I came back to my country after 13 years without any security guarantee, even a verbal one.”
According to the The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which monitors cases in Iran, Valizadeh had been arrested on arrival but released later. Valizadeh was later arrested in September in the capital, and he has been detained in Evin Prison, facing a case in Iran’s Revolutionary Court without a lawyer. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty separately said in a statement that “We have had no official confirmation of the charges against him,” continuing, “We are profoundly concerned about the continued arrest, harassment and threats against media professionals by the Iranian regime.” Iran has not acknowledged Valizadeh’s detainment, and Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.
“Iranian authorities must immediately release journalist Reza Valizadeh and drop any charges levied against him,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, the Committee to Protect Journalists interim Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. Rezaian also stated that “Iranian journalists working and living abroad should be free to visit their homeland without fear of prosecution for their profession.”
Iran is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, ranked by the Committee to Protect Journalists amongst the top ten global jailers of journalists in 2023. Reporters who cover human rights violations, protests, or government abuses are subject to intimidation, arbitrary arrest, torture, and even death in an attempt to crackdown on dissenting voices and independent journalism. Attacks on journalists by the government have increased since the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that followed the killing of Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody, with 79 journalists arrested during the protests and facing unprecedentedly harsh sentencing. According to Defending Free Flow of Information Iran, in the first half of 2024, Iranian authorities arrested or enforced prison sentences on at least 34 journalists and media activists. Alongside the violent crackdown on journalists within Iran, exiled journalists working in Persian language media abroad have been targeted, facing surveillance, harassment, and assassination attempts.
“The Islamic Republic not only targets journalists inside Iran, but also silences exiled Iranian journalists and stifles dissent beyond its borders. The Iranian government’s transnational repression of journalists demands urgent global attention,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). According to a press release from the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on May 30, there have been at least 15 credible plots tied to the Iranian government to kill or kidnap individuals, including journalists, in the United Kingdom since 2022. In the press release, the UN experts condemned the intimidation and threats against the Persian language news service Iran International’s journalists, staff, and owner Volant Media UK Limited, which they said was reflective of a larger pattern of repression of Persian language media services.
“We urge Iran to refrain from violence, threats and intimidation against Iran International and its staff, online and offline, and other journalists and media workers reporting on Iran from abroad, and to investigate and prosecute those responsible for such acts,” the experts said.
Iran’s targeting of journalists within Iran and abroad is an urgent matter with global implications. The Center for Human Rights in Iran released a statement to request that the UN, governments worldwide, and human rights organizations use November 2 (the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists) in order to speak out against Iran’s persecution of journalists, pursue multilateral efforts to protect foreign and exiled journalists, and take action, including targeted sanctions against responsible officials, in order to end this persecution. Ghaemi added that “Freedom of the press is central to the Iranian people’s decades-long struggle for freedom and justice. The Iranian government persecutes journalists precisely because it understands that open media and independent journalism will expose its atrocities to the world.”
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