Iranian Reporter Held Incommunicado Since Last Week’s Arrest

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Iranian authorities to immediately release investigative journalist Mehdi Afsharnik, whose whereabouts have remained unknown since his arrest last week.

Overnight on January 31, two plain-clothes security forces raided Afsharnik’s home in Tehran, ransacked his apartment, confiscated his personal belongings such as electronic devices, and arrested him, the New York-based media freedom watchdog quoted news reports and a source familiar with the case as saying.

CPJ said it was unable to determine where the freelance reporter was being held or whether he had been formally charged.

Authorities must immediately disclose Afsharnik’s location, free him, and drop any charges against him, said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. 

“Authorities must realize that repeatedly arresting and detaining journalists…won’t stop them from reporting on vital community issues such as Iran’s economy,” he added.

Afsharnik, a well-respected journalist who has worked for various publications including Etemad and Shargh newspapers, has also authored a book and produced documentaries.

He had been arrested several times in recent years. 

The Islamic Republic was the world’s sixth-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s last annual prison census, with 17 imprisoned journalists as of December 1, 2023.