PARIS — Iranian authorities have arrested at least 24 journalists and bloggers since postelection protests began a week ago, and a media watchdog says reporters are a “priority target” for Iran’s leadership.
Among those detained were the head of the Association of Iranian Journalists and a Canadian reporter for Newsweek. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s correspondent has been ordered to leave the country.
“It’s becoming more and more problematic for journalists,” said Benoit Hervieu of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, also known by its French acronym RSF.
The group released the names of 23 Iranian journalists, editors and bloggers arrested since June 14, and says it has lost contact with several others believed detained or in hiding. Hervieu said RSF verified each arrest via its network of reporters and activists in Iran.
Others detained include a blogger known as the “Blogging Mullah,” a cartoonist, a TV producer, the publisher of several newspapers, a disabled former newspaper editor and a business reporter.
Newsweek said in a statement later that its correspondent Maziar Bahari, a Canadian citizen, was detained without charge this morning and has not been heard from since. Newsweek defended his coverage of Iran as “fair and nuanced” and called for his release.
In most cases, the reasons behind the detentions remain unclear.
Iran’s authorities have long kept a close eye on local and international media operating in the country, and clamped down as protests engulfed Tehran last week over the June 12 presidential election, the biggest challenge to the cleric-led government in 30 years. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner, but supporters of reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi say fraud was widespread.
Authorities have banned foreign media from reporting from the street and allow only phone interviews and information from officials sources such as state TV. Many Web sites have been blocked. Iran is particularly sensitive about news reports, blogs and Internet reports in Farsi.
“The regime has been visibly shaken by its own population and does not want to let this perception endure,” RSF said in a statement.
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