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:
- Ali-Asghar Ramezanpour
- Nik Ahang Kosar
- Amir Hossein Mosseli
- Babak Zaheri
- Mani Tehrani
- Shahram Rafizadeh
- Arash Ashurinia
- Saghi Lagaei
- Mahrokh Gholam Hosseinpour
- Mitra Khalatbary
- Behdad Bordbar
- Neema Dehghani
- Mana Neyestani
- Javad Montazeri
- Sam Mahmoodi Sarabi
- Shima Shahrabi
- Ahmad Rafat
- Leila Hosseini-Nejad
- Tara Bonyad
- Saeed Barabadi
- Faraj Sarkoohi
- Ehsan Mehrabi
- Behrooz Samadbeygi
- Homayoon Kheiri
- Ali Akhoondan
- Nazanin Matin-Nia
- Fariborz Soroush
- Ardavan Rouzbeh
- Majid Saeedi
- Farzin Golpad
- Neema Rad
- Maziar Bahari
- Firoozeh Ramezanzadeh
- Saeed Pourheydar
- Hadis Elmi
- Mohammad Reza Nasab Abodollahi
- Khatereh Vatankhah
- Shabnam Azar
- Dariush Memar
- Reza Ansarizadeh
- Zahra Choopankareh
- Masoud Lavasani
- Pouria Soori
- Fereshteh Ghazi
- Nezhat Amir Abadian
- Mohammad Norouzi
- Sahar Bayati
- Maryam Amiri
- Noushabeh Amiri
- Lyda Hosseininezhad
- Mohammad Aghazadeh
- Rasoul Asghari
- Mohammad Ghadamali
- Hanif Mazrooei
- Mehran Faraji
- Alieh Matlabzadeh
- Kambiz Ghafouri
- Tahereh Riahi
- Shadi Shafiei
- Hamed Shafiei
- Lyda Ayaz
- Alireza Behnam
- Asal Dadashlou
- Mohammad Kassaizadeh
- Farid Haerinejad
- Saeed Shams
- Farshid Fariabi
- Ershad Alijani
- Azam Vismeh
- Saeedeh Amin
- Mohammad Tangestani
- Sonita Sarabpour
- Reza HaghighatNejad
- Fatemeh Karimkhanian
- Mehdi Ghadimi
- Fatemeh Jamalpour
- Molood Hajizadeh
- Rouzbeh Karimi
- Saba Sherdoost
- Masoud Kazemi
- Sepideh Behkam
- Shabnam Shokourian
- Nazanin Kazemi
- Arash Bahmani
- Omid Montazeri
- Behnam Saber Nemati
- Pouyan Fakhraee
- Shokoufeh Azar
- Asieh Amini
- Afshin Amirshahi
- Sam Khosravi Fard
- Roya Maleki
- Behnaz Jalalipour
- Sara Boroumand
- Zahra Jafar Zadeh
- Ali Mazrouee
- Newsha Saremi
- Alnaz Mohammadi
- Sama Babaee
- Farnoush Amir Shahi
- Maziar Khosravi
- Siamak Ghaderi
- Morteza Kazemian
- Farnoush Tehrani
- Leili Nikoonazar
- Solmaz Ikdar
- Hossein Alavi
- Isa Saharkhiz
- Ali Shirazi
- Niloofar Rostami
- Mohammad Rahbar
- Mehdi Mahmoudian
- Milad Beheshti
- Mojtaba Najafi
- Marjan Tabatabaei
- Mehdi Jami
- Reza Shokrollahi
- Negin Behkam
- Hamid-Reza Ebrahimzadeh
- Shirzad Abodollahi
- Reza Rafiei
- Ali Mohtadi
- Aida Qajar
- Kamiar Behrang
- Bijan Farhoodi
- Mehdi Vazirbani
- Sanaz Ghazizadeh
- Soroush Farhadian
- Hasan Sarbakhshian
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