129 Journalists Sign Letter against Isfahan Arrests

Revolutionary Guards arrested three employees of the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), Arya Jafari, Zahra Mohammadi and Sanam Farsi, after they reported on and provided images of the acid attacks and the affiliated protest held in Isfahan by people demanding the authorities ensure a safe living environment.

Although Zahra Mohammadi and Sanam Farsi were released the day after their arrest, Arya Jafari, a freelance photographer working for ISNA, was arrested on October 23 and remains in detention.

Throwing acid on the faces or bodies of women is a crime that angers any human being and has consequently drawn much public attention. Under these conditions it is the media’s duty to give people accurate and timely information; if it is prevented from doing so, it cannot exercise one of its key professional duties – informing the public. As such, rumors circulate and managing a crisis like this becomes much more difficult.

Given that people have a right to know about what happens in their society, the media has found ways to overcome these obstacles.

Mr Jafari’s arrest, and that of the two other INSA reporters several days later, has lead the media to ask some disturbing questions:

How is the arrest of reporters, who are merely performing their duty of providing people with news and photos, any different to preventing the media from informing the public? Doesn’t this strip the public’s right to know?

On what charges were the ISNA reporters arrested? What laws had they broken through their reportage? How will repeatedly telling the media to not cover disturbing crimes like acid-throwing help in any way?

Through emphasis on our professional standards and ethics, we, the journalists signed below, demand the release of Arya Jafari, ISNA’s photojournalist in Isfahan. We ask that the authorities and the institutions responsible for his arrest observe and respect the right of the media to provide free and accurate information and the public’s right to know.

The silencing of reporters and the media will not result in anything that will benefit the people or society at large.

Signed by:

1. Ali-Asghar Ramezanpour
2. Nik Ahang Kosar
3. Amir Hossein Mosseli
4. Babak Zaheri
5. Mani Tehrani
6. Shahram Rafizadeh
7. Arash Ashurinia
8. Saghi Lagaei
9. Mahrokh Gholam Hosseinpour
10. Mitra Khalatbary
11. Behdad Bordbar
12. Neema Dehghani
13. Mana Neyestani
14. Javad Montazeri
15. Sam Mahmoodi Sarabi
16. Shima Shahrabi
17. Ahmad Rafat
18. Leila Hosseini-Nejad
19. Tara Bonyad
20. Saeed Barabadi
21. Faraj Sarkoohi
22. Ehsan Mehrabi
23. Behrooz Samadbeygi
24. Homayoon Kheiri
25. Ali Akhoondan
26. Nazanin Matin-Nia
27. Fariborz Soroush
28. Ardavan Rouzbeh
29. Majid Saeedi
30. Farzin Golpad
31. Neema Rad
32. Maziar Bahari
33. Firoozeh Ramezanzadeh
34. Saeed Pourheydar
35. Hadis Elmi
36. Mohammad Reza Nasab Abodollahi
37. Khatereh Vatankhah
38. Shabnam Azar
39. Dariush Memar
40. Reza Ansarizadeh
41. Zahra Choopankareh
42. Masoud Lavasani
43. Pouria Soori
44. Fereshteh Ghazi
45. Nezhat Amir Abadian
46. Mohammad Norouzi
47. Sahar Bayati
48. Maryam Amiri
49. Noushabeh Amiri
50. Lyda Hosseininezhad
51. Mohammad Aghazadeh
52. Rasoul Asghari
53. Mohammad Ghadamali
54. Hanif Mazrooei
55. Mehran Faraji
56. Alieh Matlabzadeh
57. Kambiz Ghafouri
58. Tahereh Riahi
59. Shadi Shafiei
60. Hamed Shafiei
61. Lyda Ayaz
62. Alireza Behnam
63. Asal Dadashlou
64. Mohammad Kassaizadeh
65. Farid Haerinejad
66. Saeed Shams
67. Farshid Fariabi
68. Ershad Alijani
69. Azam Vismeh
70. Saeedeh Amin
71. Mohammad Tangestani
72. Sonita Sarabpour
73. Reza HaghighatNejad
74. Fatemeh Karimkhanian
75. Mehdi Ghadimi
76. Fatemeh Jamalpour
77. Molood Hajizadeh
78. Rouzbeh Karimi
79. Saba Sherdoost
80. Masoud Kazemi
81. Sepideh Behkam
82. Shabnam Shokourian
83. Nazanin Kazemi
84. Arash Bahmani
85. Omid Montazeri
86. Behnam Saber Nemati
87. Pouyan Fakhraee
88. Shokoufeh Azar
89. Asieh Amini
90. Afshin Amirshahi
91. Sam Khosravi Fard
92. Roya Maleki
93. Behnaz Jalalipour
94. Sara Boroumand
95. Zahra Jafar Zadeh
96. Ali Mazrouee
97. Newsha Saremi
98. Alnaz Mohammadi
99. Sama Babaee
100. Farnoush Amir Shahi
101. Maziar Khosravi
102. Siamak Ghaderi
103. Morteza Kazemian
104. Farnoush Tehrani
105. Leili Nikoonazar
106. Solmaz Ikdar
107. Hossein Alavi
108. Isa Saharkhiz
109. Ali Shirazi
110. Niloofar Rostami
111. Mohammad Rahbar
112. Mehdi Mahmoudian
113. Milad Beheshti
114. Mojtaba Najafi
115. Marjan Tabatabaei
116. Mehdi Jami
117. Reza Shokrollahi
118. Negin Behkam
119. Hamid-Reza Ebrahimzadeh
120. Shirzad Abodollahi
121. Reza Rafiei
122. Ali Mohtadi
123. Aida Qajar
124.  Kamiar Behrang
125. Bijan Farhoodi
126. Mehdi Vazirbani
127. Sanaz Ghazizadeh
128. Soroush Farhadian
129. Hasan Sarbakhshian