journalismisnotacrime.com is launched!

journalismisnotacrime.com was launched earlier today.  Founded by Maziar Bahari, IranWire's publisher, the site is an online database of every journalist the Iranian government has thrown behind bars for publishing material it deems to be “inappropriate." It will feature hundreds of journalists that have been jailed since the Green Movement in 2009 and before that period, legal and psychological advice for reporters, as well as up-to-date news on arrests, censorship and other violations of the press.

Bahari, who was himself imprisoned for 118 days after he covered the presidential election and its ensuing protests for Newsweek, and whose story was turned into a Hollywood film called “Rosewater” by director Jon Stewart, spoke about JINAC ahead of its launch, how it works and what he hopes to achieve from it.

Can you tell me a little more about what Journalism is not a Crime is and how it works?

JINAC is a site that ultimately serves two purposes. One, to give journalists in Iran greater agency and, secondly, to hold the Iranian government to account for its illegal actions against the press and the people who work within it. For decades, journalists have been targeted by the state and jailed for attempting to freely report in their country and this site documents the criminality of the government’s actions. Since 2009 alone, more than 200 reporters have found themselves behind bars, myself included, and this is unacceptable.

The website will have a "Wall of Shame" with the face of every journalist that’s been arrested accompanied by their personal stories, their sentences and other bits of information about them. In addition to this, there’s a news section on the site that will publish up-to-date stories on the arrests of journalists, the censoring of material and the closing of publications. It will also keep up to date with changes in the statuses of all journalists, so for instance, if someone is released prematurely or their sentence is reduced or increased in a trial, it will go on the website immediately.

We’ve also put together a number of special projects to further highlight the severity of the situation. This includes a book on censorship, a report on Iranian journalists suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a paper on Iran’s infringement of international and domestic press freedom laws and a film about Masih Alinejad, a brave Iranian reporter. And, there’s much more to come.

There will also be a section on the site dedicated to giving jailed journalists, as well as their loved ones, legal advice on things like arbitrary arrests, property confiscations, solitary confinement and other things. When the government confronts an individual, it’s easy for that person to feel powerless but this will empower the journalists by informing them of their rights.

There’s also a section that provides reporters with psychological help. So, if a journalist who spent time in jail is suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder or something similar, they can visit the page and find a long list of FAQs about how to cope. And, if they can’t find the answer they’re looking for, they can write to our team of psychologists who’ll answer them. You can choose to do this anonymously.

We’re also planning to work with a number of friendly organizations around the world to organize events in different countries to create solidarity between Iranian journalists and journalists from elsewhere. This’ll allow Iranian journalists and their colleagues to learn from each other’s experiences and to raise further awareness of the dire state of press freedom in Iran. The site is available in both English and Persian.

Which journalists will feature on the site and who edits the profiles?

Currently, there are nearly 200 journalists, all of whom have been imprisoned since 2009, but this will rapidly grow as we start to include those who have been arrested since 1979 and then before that as well.

The Wall of Shame will only have journalists who’ve been imprisoned. These people will be able to login and edit their bios. We’ll also be in touch with people who know the journalists themselves, so family members and friends, but really anyone can suggest profile edits.

Our main concern will always be the safety of the journalists and their loved ones so we will make sure to not to do anything to jeopardize that.  

Will the Iranian government ban the site?

Definitely. There’s no question. We’re giving a new voice to the Iranian people the government has been silencing for years. But that isn’t a problem — the Iranian people are very entrepreneurial —  numerous sites, like Twitter, Facebook and so on, are banned in Iran and they always get around it.

What was the inspiration behind the project? 

When I came out of prison in October 2009, I realised I got out because of the amazing campaign that was launched by my colleagues at Newsweek, Channel 4 News and other media organizations. But this was because I’d worked for western media outlets and people knew my name. I had a face attached to my name but many of my colleagues, my friends who are in jail in Iran, who are harassed on a daily basis, aren’t as fortunate. Since then, I’ve been wanting to start a project like this in order to give a face to the names and statistics. Because when you hear 40 journalists are in prison, or so and so number have been killed, it means very little. This site will give these faceless people a face and a place to tell their stories — they’re no longer just statistics, which empowers them in the process. The situation of press freedom in Iran has a very real human cost and this seeks to change that.