Britannia Radio

From Times Online

November 6, 2009

Foreign journalists arrested in Tehran crackdown

(Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA)

Media outlets around the world published pictures and stories from violent demonstrations in Tehran this week

Nico Hines

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The Iranian regime has responded to mass protests in Tehran this week by implementing a crackdown on foreign journalists.

Two Canadian, one Japanese and one Danish journalist are thought to have been arrested for “unauthorised reporting” on demonstrations involving tens of thousands of opposition supporters on Wednesday.

The 30th anniversary of the storming of the US Embassy was supposed to be marked with an official rally but it was hijacked by opponents to the Tehran regime.

Opposition videos were published showing riot police and the Basij militia clubbing men and women and charging into crowds.

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The state-run Fars news agency said today that the Canadian and Japanese reporters had been seized and a Danish journalism student was held two days ago.

The Danish union of journalists said that Niels Krosgaard, 31, was working as a freelance journalist in Iran for a project related to a course when he was arrested.

“The Danish journalist who had disappeared has been located in an Iranian jail,” a spokesman said. “He was arrested at an anti-government protest in Tehran.”

The Danish foreign ministry said that it had been informed of the case by the union.

Farhad Pouladi, an Iranian reporter for Agence France-Presse (AFP), was detained in Tehran on Wednesday

Two uniformed police officers and one in plain clothes took Mr Pouladi into custody after stopping the motorcycle on which he was a passenger.

Jay Deshmukh, the acting AFP bureau chief, said that the reporter’s whereabouts were not known.

Iran has imposed restrictions on media that include bans on firsthand reporting of street demonstrations and other events not authorised by authorities.

Reporters for domestic and international media outlets have been jailed since the crackdowns after disputed presidential elections in June.

Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek journalist, was freed on bail last month after nearly four months in prison. Mr Bahari, who has Canadian and Iranian citizenship, was allowed to leave the country to join his pregnant British wife in London.

The latest arrests came after opposition supporters, who claim that the outcome of the June 12 presidential election was rigged, held demonstrations in the capital. Riot police fired shots into the air and used teargas.

The protests were smaller than in the aftermath of the disputed election but were matched by demonstrations in several Iranian cities.

Opposition figures said that they were large enough to remind the regime and international observers that despite five months of brutal suppression, the opposition had not been crushed.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, held a meeting with the families of three American hikers who have been detained in Iran.

Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were arrested in July for illegal entry near the Iraq border and are in a prison in Tehran.

Mrs Clinton called on Iran to free them on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.