An RFE/RL correspondent has been deported from the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhijevan through Iran after investigating the death of a man reportedly accused of spying for Tehran, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.

Yafez Hasanov traveled to Nakhijevan on August 30 to interview family members of Turac Zeynalov, who was found dead at the territory’s Ministry of National Security after being summoned there last week. Zeynalov’s family said he was accused of “working for Iran.”

Hasanov told RFE/RL that three men in a vehicle commonly used by state security agents stopped him on the street on August 31 and told him to get in.

“When I asked who they were, they didn’t say anything. They forced me into the car, took away my passport and demanded me to switch off my mobile,” he said.
 
Hasanov said the men warned him not to report about the case since Zeynalov was “a traitor.”

He said they drove him to the border and told him to return to Baku via Iran, warning him not to return to Nakhijevan or “it would cost” him. Hasanov got a taxi in Iran and arrived in Baku on September 1.

RFE/RL is considered an illegal organization in Iran.
Read More »RFE/RL Azerbaijani Reporter Deported From Nakhijevan Via Iran

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the way that security officials in Nakhchivan – an autonomous Azerbaijani exclave between Armenia and Iran – have been harassing journalists in an attempt to impose a news blackout on a death in detention and the disappearance of four other young people who had been summoned for questioning.

“After eliminating almost all the sources of news and information, Nakhchivan’s security services are carrying out intolerable human rights abuses with complete impunity,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The few independent journalists working there are under a great deal of pressure. The death of a citizen in detention one day after his arrest and the disappearance of four other people are test for the government of Azerbaijan, which signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is member of the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

“If the central government in Baku wants to demonstrate its sovereignty over Nakhchivan and it respect for its international obligations, it must immediately ensure that the media are able to operate there and it must rein in the regional authorities, who are resorting to increasingly violent authoritarian methods.”

Read More »RSF: “Authorities in Nakhchivan impose news blackout on detainee’s death”

Iran has pardoned 100 political prisoners in an attempt to appease the country’s opposition and reduce tensions seven months before parliamentary elections.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the release from jail of a number of prisoners recommended to him by the head of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, to mark Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The mass release is the latest attempt by Iran to ease the country’s tense political atmosphere prior to parliamentary elections in March 2012. Authorities have recently given more space to opposition newspapers and have shown more restraint in dealing with criticism.

Source: The Guardian

Read More »Iran frees 100 political prisoners

According to the Ministry of Justice, freedom of expression in Turkey is not being restricted and only 4 out of 63 imprisoned journalists are behind bars because of their writings. Turan Özlu form National Channel who was arrested this week is the 64th journalist in prison.

According to a study carried out by the Ministry of Justice upon the request of the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), 18 out of 63 journalists in prison are convicted. The TGS submitted a list with the names of a total of 72 persons to the Ministry of Justice and requested information on these people’s situations. TGS President Ercan İpekçi toldbianet that the difference in numbers was corrected after a comparison of data.

The Ministry announced that the argument saying “press freedom in Turkey has been restricted in recent times” did not reflect the truth.

The Ministry declared, “The Turkish Journalists Union had a list of 72 names defined as detained and convicted. Three of them were not registered in any prison; six persons were released. 63 people of the list are still being imprisoned. Trials were opened against 36, 18 of whom were convicted. Investigations about 27 people are still going on. 18 of the 63 persons in prisons hold a press card; 45 people do not have a press card”.

Read More »Turkey: “Journalists not Detained because of their Writings”

In March 2010, the Armenian Parliament adopted amendments and bill on making additions to Civil, Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes on mass media activity. New provisions in the Civil Code were adopted which were preceded by heated debates among journalists and media experts mostly on size of compensation in case of law violation – from 500.000 AMD (about $1.250) to 2 million AMD (about $5.000).

Since the amendments were made and till today, 16 cases were initiated against Armenian media on defamation and insult. According to the head of the Information Freedom Center Shushan Doydoyan, all these cases are still in actual as they are in the process of appeals.

Though experts welcome decriminalization of defamation and insult, they are concerned with the amounts of fines which seem more as a tool to influence the media than a punishment. Besides, the low knowledge of journalism ethics and prepossession of judges have a negative impact.

The president of the Committee to Protect Freedom of Speach Ashot Meliqyan says they are working on a suggestion to decrease the amounts of fines that will be lobbied in the Parliament.

Read More »Piece of Fault: Journalists are Also to Blame in the Cases on Insult and Defamation

A criminal case has been instituted against the employee of the embassy of Georgia to Ukraine for physically assaulting journalist, reports the web portal “comments” whose correspondent Alexander Yamkovoy was injured as a result.

The criminal case on charges of hooliganism was instituted by Shevchenko region militia department. The assailant is likely to face 7 years in prison.

The aggrieved journalist intends to institute another case according to Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on hindering journalist’s professional activity.

“The militia’s work rate assures me that the case will be soon settled and the assailant will be punished”, the journalist said.

The FEMEN movement doesn’t believe that the attacker will be punished as they presume that he has already left Ukraine as he was dismissed after the incident.

On 18 July, FEMEN protested in support of Georgian photo reporters outside the Embassy of Georgia in Kiev. A stranger having walked out of the embassy tried to disperse the protest rally. He assaulted journalist Alexander Yamkovoy.

InrePresNews has found out that the Embassy employee having taken part in the incident is Temur Zarnadze.

Source: Media.ge

Read More »Criminal Case Instituted Against Georgia Embassy Employee in Ukraine

Several major newspapers and websites in Georgia have published their front pages without pictures in a co-ordinated protest against the arrest of three photographers accused of spying for Russia.

Giorgi Abdaladze, a stringer for the Associated Press newswire; Zurab Kurtsikidze of the European Pressphoto Agency; and Irakli Gedenidze, the personal photographer of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s president, were detained in the early hours of 7 July.

All three were charged with espionage and have reportedly confessed to photographing secret documents, including details of Saakashvili’s itinerary, and selling them to Russian military intelligence. They face up to 12 years in prison in a trial due to start on 1 September.

Source: The Guardian

Read More »Georgian papers go blank in protest against photographer ‘spies’ arrest

A popular Iranian actor and outspoken supporter of the country’s opposition movement has been arrested in Tehran after attempting to travel to Germany to take part in coverage of the women’s World Cup.

Pegah Ahangarani, 27, was scheduled to go to Germany to participate in TV programmes about the Fifa tournament, but was picked up from her home in the capital by security officials on Sunday.

Ahangarani fell foul of the Islamic regime when she publicly campaigned for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in Iran’s 2009 presidential elections, but escaped arrest until recently because of her widespread popularity.

She is the second woman to have been arrested in recent weeks in connection with the women’s World Cup in Germany. Maryam Majd, a prominent Iranian photographer and activist who had campaigned for women to be allowed to enter stadiums to watch football matches in Iran, was arrested in late June before going to Germany, where she wanted to work on a book about women and sport.

Source: The Guardian

Read More »Iranian actor arrested en route to women’s World Cup

Iran has stepped up online censorship by upgrading the filtering system that enables the Islamic regime to block access to thousands of websites it deems inappropriate for Iranian users.

The move comes one month after the United States announced plans to launch new services facilitating internet access and mobile phone communications in countries with tight controls on freedom of speech, a decision that infuriated Tehran’s regime and prompted harsh reactions from several Iranian officials.

More than 5 million websites are filtered in Iran. Media organisations including the Guardian, BBC and CNN are blocked, though access to the New York Times website is allowed. On Google, the Farsi equivalents for words such as “condom”, “sex”, “lesbian” and “anti-filtering” are filtered out.

The upgrade had at first appeared as a relaxation of the censorship machine. Iran’s online community said on Monday that filtering was temporarily lifted for the entire country, giving users access to banned websites such as Twitter and Facebook. But hopes for an end to censorship were dashed when news agencies reported later in the day that the respite was due to the process of making the upgrade.

Read More »Iran tightens online censorship to counter US ‘shadow internet’

A prominent jailed Iranian journalist has urged a newly appointed UN human rights investigator to visit Iran as soon as possible in order to inform the world about the “heinous acts” committed in the country’s prisons, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.

Isa Saharkhiz, a journalist and member of the Association for the Defense of Press Freedom, wrote in a letter to Ahmed Shaheed that “what is happening in the prisons of the Islamic Republic [of Iran] is a crime against humanity no less than the inhumane measures [implemented by Soviet leader Josef] Stalin in Siberian concentration camps.”

Saharkhiz wrote that “the strategy of this regime is to kill protesting prisoners silently and gradually…for they are afraid of us being alive, even behind these bars and walls.”

Iran has said it would not accept a visit by Shaheed, who was appointed the UN special rapporteur on human rights to Iran last month.

Saharkhiz was arrested during the post-presidential election crackdown in July 2009. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, a five-year ban on engaging in political and journalistic activities, and a one-year ban on leaving Iran after his release.

The charges brought against him included insulting Iran’s supreme leader and “spreading propaganda against the regime.”

Read More »Jailed Iranian Journalist Appeals To UN Rapporteur