RSF urges Iran to release 11 newsmen
Hi Pakistan
11 Jan 2004
TEHRAN, Jan 11: Global press rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has urged Iranian authorities to release 11 journalists, arguing that most of them are in appalling health.
"It is completely unacceptable for journalists like Siamak Pourzand, who is sick and 74-years-old, to be still held in solitary confinement," RSF's secretary general, Robert Menard, said in a statement.
"The same goes for Ali-Reza Jabari, 60, who suffers from heart problems and has even received 253 lashes. The journalists' families are not even allowed to bring warm clothing to the sick prisoners."
The statement said Siamak Pourzand, a freelance journalist who was jailed in 2000 for eight years, had even been tortured and was being held in a basement cell in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en50357&F_catID=&f_type=sourceI think it's time for world media to get involved in defending their peers and colleagues. They haven't made this a public issue, and they should be embarrassed by their silence. It's time for them to speak out against the regime and demand the release of fellow journalists.
I'd like to encourage people to write to news media and encourage them to make the freeing of Iranian journalists a priority. Someone in American media needs to take up the cause, and make it known to the public. It's another means of revealing the truth about Iranian regime, and supporting the democratic movement.
Let the world know how ruthless and suffocating the regime is, and that it's time for them to leave and allow the people of Iran to live in the free society they desire.