April 22, 2010
Your Excellency:
The Overseas Press Club of America, an international association of journalists working in the United States and abroad, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending press freedom worldwide, want to express our deep concerns about your government’s treatment of journalists and its unabated harassment of Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari.
Bahari, who was imprisoned in Iran for 118 days on fabricated antistate charges following last year’s disputed June presidential election and who continues to face legal action in Iran, told CPJ that family members in Tehran had received a threatening phone call on Saturday from a man who identified himself as an Iranian court official.
The caller threatened unspecified consequences if Bahari continued to speak out on behalf of his imprisoned colleagues. Bahari, who also serves as a consultant to a campaign calling for the release of imprisoned Iranian journalists and writers, has made numerous statements and appearances advocating for the many Iranian journalists who remain imprisoned and continue to face baseless criminal charges.
“Tell Maziar that he shouldn’t think we don’t have access to him because he is not in Iran,” said the male caller, who did not identify himself by name. “The situation is getting dangerous now. Anything can happen without advance notice.”
We denounce this and similar threats made to Bahari and numerous other Iranian journalists, a pattern of intimidation designed to control news coverage and browbeat reporters into submission. Bahari told CPJ that this is the first time such threats have been expressed to family members. He said that he had previously been contacted through intermediaries in an effort to convince him to keep quiet. He also stated that during his incarceration, he was told that the Revolutionary Guard has “foreign branches that can bring you back in a bag.”
We ask that you instruct the relevant authorities to end their sustained campaign of intimidation and harassment of Bahari and dozens of other independent or opposition journalists in Iran.
We thank you for your attention to this most urgent matter of international importance.
Respectfully yours,
John Martin – ABC News (retired)
Yvonne Dunleavy – Journalist/Author
Ellen McCourt
Harriett Corporon
Jurt E. Luch
Keith Hu
Andrew Nagorski – EastWest Institute
Nancy Novick – NS Design
Richard Bucholz
Beth Knobel – Fordham University
Kirill Belyaninov – Kommersant Daily (Russia)
Olga Meshcheryakova – NTV America
Sonya K. Fry – Overseas Press Club of America
Jane Reilly – Overseas Press Club Foundation
James W. Fry III – Café Katja
Rachel Manning – Bard College
Elliott D. Woods – Virginia Quarterly Review
Evelyn Leopold – Huffington Post
Maureen White
Christina Bolton – John Boltz Consulting
Nicole Bode – DNAinfo.com
Jane Ciabattari – OPC Board Secretary
Nate Beeler – Washington Examiner
Mark Tap Scott – Washington Examiner
Stephen G. Smith – Washington Examiner
Jack Beeler – Porter Waght
Amber Qureshi – Free Press
Susan Boyle – Associated Press
Stephen Segaller – Thirteen/WNET.org
Tom Squitieri – TS Navigations
Rita Cosby – CBS Inside Edition
Tomaczek Dednariek – CMG Media LLC
Nina Chaudry – Thirteen/WNET.org
Tom Casciato – Thirteen/WNET.org
Carrie Holt de Lama – HOH Productions, LLC
Anna Walek – QTL Veronique
Stefanie Lemcke – Quatum Media
Deborah Browski – Wall Street Journal
Jim Dever – SAP
Vito Roconelli – Barron’s
Eric Carlson – Morgan Stanley
Steve Sokol – American Council on Germany
Allan Dodds Frank – OPC President
Kimberly Dozier – Associated Press
Christy Carpenter – Paley Center for Media
Martin Smith – Rain Media
Will Cohen – Rain Media
Katherine Frank
Melissa Frank
Lilian King – Meritas Partners
Michael Lee – Committee of 100
Charles M. Sennott – GlobalPost.com
Colette Rhoney – Media Consultant
Matt McAllester – GlobalPost.com
Catherine Collins – Microsoft
Caitlin McCabe – Microsoft
Kathleen McGraw – Edelman Public Relations
Jason Gale – Bloomberg News
Gail Conner Roche – Bloomberg News
Jonathan Neumann – Bloomberg News
Leslie Fox – Bloomberg News
Ronald Henkoff – Bloomberg News
Michael Serrill – Bloomberg News
Diane Brady – Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Michael Waldholz – Bloomberg News
Karen Toulon – Bloomberg News
Tim W. Ferguson – Forbes
Hiroko Nishimura – Nikkei
Frederick H. Katayana – Reuters Television
Hirotaka Toyonaga – NHK
Yoshihisa Suzuki – Itochu International
Hiroshi Masuda – Jiji Press America
Naureen Malle – Dow Jones
Barbara H. Landreth, M.D.
Sean Healy – Healy Corporate Communications
Angela Harrell – Coca-Cola Company
Emma Daly – Human Rights Watch
John Koppisch – Forbes
Robert Pledge – Contact Press Images
David Burnett – Contact Press Images
Kerry Smith – ABC
Eliane Laffont – Visa Pour L’Image
Thomas D. Herman – Freelance Journalist
Jacque Menasche – Contact Press Images
David Andelman – World Policy Journal
Joshua Hammer – Smithsonian Magazine
Karin Annus – Reuters
Agnes Crane – Reuters
David Martin – CBS News
Marcy Walsh – CBS News
Maria Mercader – CBS News
Kevin Tedesco – CBS News
Ana Real – CBS News
Larry Martz – Former OPC President
Bill Collins – Ford Motor Company
Will Bourne – Fast Company Magazine
Tara Martin – Ford Motor Company
Karl Greenberg – Media Post
Jennifer Bensko Ha – WNYC Radio
Dinda Elliott – Conde Nast Traveler
Greg Farrell – Financial Times
Dave DeCecco – PepsiCo
Liza Tan – CNBC
John Sicher – Beverage Digest
Martinne Geller – Reuters
Anjali Cordeiro – Dow Jones
Jeff Dahncke – PepsiCo
Michael McHale – Subaru of America
Jim Clash – Forbes
Jason Harper – Freelance Journalist
Betsy Stark – Freelance Journalist
John Voelcker – High Gear Media
Alex Richardson – Polo Ralph Loren
Marilyn Frank – Actress
Kate McLeod – McLeod Group
Jerry Flint – Forbes
Nisid Hajari – Newsweek
James Wellford – Newsweek
Frank de Maria – Newsweek
Kate Baker – Newsweek
Arlene Getz – Newsweek
Katie Paul – Newsweek
Karen Fragala – Newsweek
Daniel Klaidman – Newsweek
Robert Dowling – Caixin Media Group
Matt Dube
Andreas Henry – Wirtschaftswoche
Wataru Kodaka – Nikkei
Han Tjan – Daimler
Astrid Doerner – Handelsblatt
Ulrich Oppold – RTL Television
Christine Mattauch – Freelance Journalist
Mark Seibel – McClatchy Newspapers
Fred Mackerodt
Myron Kandel – Freelance Business Editor
Minky Worden – Human Rights Watch
Pierre Kanter – PKC Global
Carolyn Markey – General Motors
Herbert Shuldiner – Ward’s Auto World
James Hresko – General Motors
David Fondiller – Boston Consulting Group
Justin Fox – Harvard Business Review
Simon Targett – Boston Consulting Group
Andrew Zogzccilft-Johnson – Financial Times
David Lieberman – USA Today
Katie Benner – Fortune
James Surowieck – New Yorker
Paul Sullivan – New York Times
Len Johnson – McGraw-Hill Companies
Mary Breasted
Mary Anne Boorker
Fred Breisnacht
Shelly Dubois – Fortune.com
J.P. Magalindan – Fortune.com
Mary E. Elliott
Viviane Macedo – Deutsche Banl
Sital Patel – Fox News
Kathryn Sumeps
Heidi Brown – Freelance Journalist
Heide Bo
Celhia de Lavarene – Radio France
John J. Metzler – WorldTribune.com
Teri Schure – Worldpress.org
Gianpaolo Pioli – La Nazione (UNCA)
Roy Rowan – Former OPC President
David Friend – Vanity Fair
Richard B. Stolley – Time Inc.
Martha B. Stolley – Attorney
Robert F. Keefe
Ron Allen – NBC News
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson – National Public Radio
George Bookman – Author/Freelance Writer
Felice Levin – OPC Foundation Board
Rosalind Massow – OPC Foundation
Travis Hemlepp – Retired
Linda Goetz-Holmes – Overseas Press Club Foundation
Catherine Hemlepp – Time Warner Communications (retired)
Helen Swinton – Overseas Press Club of America
Hope Sherman – Sherman & Company (CPAs, P.A.)
Neil Hickey – Columbia University School of Journalism
Lucrecia R. Duque – Overseas Press Club of America
Marc Lemcke – Communications & Network Consulting (CNC)
Alvaro Serrano – United Nations Population Fund Agency
Werner Schmidt – German-American Community Project, Inc.
Alexis Gelber – Former Newsweek Editor/OPC President
Andrew Lluberes – Department of Homeland Security
William J. Holstein – Independent Writer/Author & OPC Foundation President
Jacqueline Albert-Simon – Politique Internationale
Joel Simon – Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
John Weis – Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Joe Connolly – Wall Street Journal Radio, WCBS
Gerard Aziakou – Agence France-Press at the United Nations
Leanne Kao – Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in New York
Wendy Lin – Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in New York
Jeremy Main – OPC Freedom of the Press Committee
George E. Burns – Overseas Press Club of America/OPC Foundation