Iranian Journalist Elnaz Mohammadi “Forced to Resign”

Iranian journalist Elnaz Mohammadi says she was forced to resign from Hammihan newspaper a month ago.

“I was forced to leave the social group [desk] that we formed with Elahe with great enthusiasm in July last year," Mohammadi wrote in a post on her Instagram on December 14. 

In September, Elnaz Mohammadi received a three-year suspended prison sentence for covering the monthslong “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.

Her sister Elahe Mohammadi, who is also a journalist, is serving a 12-year prison sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison.

"There are many reasons behind my resignation, but it’s better that I don't say. I don’t want to reveal more than that," Mohammadi said.

Dozens of journalists were among more than 10,000 people unlawfully detained following the eruption of nationwide protests last year. 

Many journalists have been released on bail while awaiting trial or have been issued summonses to serve multi-year sentences.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, has urged the Islamic Republic to “stop the widespread persecution of human rights defenders and journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists has said that the Iranian authorities “must realize that jailing journalists and critical voices won’t help them in hiding Iran’s difficult realities,” while Reporters Without Borders accused the Islamic Republic of exacting its “revenge against journalists who…have fulfilled their duties in serving the public’s right to news and information.”