New Subpoenas For Journalists

Saeed Mirbahrami, Rooz Online:

Rooz special correspondent from Tehran reports that a new wave of subpoenas have been issued to journalists requiring them to appear before Tehran’s Prosecutor. Some of those called are also members of Iran’s newspaper syndicate. The subpoenas are said to be for the purpose of getting information from journalists and possibly forcing them to make false confessions.

Six journalists have so far been summoned to offices belonging to the state security agency and other places such as hotels, and the offices of the international security of the Ministry of the Interior. Some of those who responded to the summons were intimidated, threatened or invited to clandestinely cooperate with the judiciary by judiciary officials. These summons and the questionings were carried out on orders from the Ministry of Intelligence. The behavior of the officials, according to those who responded was conspicuously different from what journalists experienced during Khatami’s presidency, even though then too the press was under harsh attacks by the Judiciary.

All except of two the journalists that were summoned were junior and novices. This seems to indicate that the officials are trying to avoid calling in prominent and veterans who will have more clout to publicize the event. Still, the reporters that were summoned were threatened and categorically told not to discuss the event with anyone. This makes one conclude that whatever they have said so far is probably not everything that went on behind the closed doors.

I addition to the official threats and summons, there are also signs that unofficial threats too are beginning to surface. A new website, Sepah-e Islam (Islamic army in Persian) has published a list of names of 210 Iranian journalists who “deserve to be executed”. The names of the six reporters that were summoned by the Judiciary two days ago are on the list as well. READ MORE