The death in detention of Iranian-Canadian freelance photographer Zahra Kazemi in July punctuated a year of ongoing state repression against dissident media. Newspaper closures continued, as did the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of journalists. The press crackdown further added to popular disappointment with Iran’s two-term president, Mohammed Khatami, whose attempts at social and political reform…
There were 138 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2003 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is the same as last year. An analysis of the reasons behind this is contained in the introduction on page 10. At the beginning of 2004, CPJ sent letters of inquiry to…
New York, February 20, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the Wednesday, February 18, suspension of two Iranian reformist-leaning dailies by Tehran’s Press Court. The suspensions came just before Iran’s controversial parliamentary elections, which are being conducted today. According to Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman for the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom of the…
New York, August 25, 2003— An Iranian criminal court investigating the death of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi in July announced today that two interrogators were responsible for her murder. The official news agency IRNA reported that court officials called Kazemi’s death in custody a “quasi intentional murder” and ordered the two interrogators, who were not…
July 28, 2003, New York—Five Iranian security agents have been detained in connection with the death of Canadian-Iranian free-lance journalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in government custody on July 10 after being arrested for taking photographs outside a prison in the capital, Tehran, according to press reports and an Iranian source. Sources cited a state…
New York, July 21, 2003—Zahra Kazemi, the Canadian-Iranian photojournalist who died in Iranian government custody two weeks ago, died as a result of a skull fracture, according to an Iranian government inquiry into her death. The official Iranian new agency IRNA reported yesterday that the inquiry, commissioned earlier this month by Iranian president Mohamed Khatami,…
New York, July 17, 2003—A top Iranian official said yesterday that the death of Canadian-Iranian free-lance photojournalist Zahra Kazemi might have be en caused by a fall or another accident, contradicting an announcement the same day by Iranian vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi that Kazemi died from a “brain hemorrhage resulting from beatings” Iranian foreign…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply alarmed by the death of Canadian-Iranian free-lance photographer Zahra Kazemi. Although you have ordered several government ministries to officially investigate her death, we demand that an immediate, independent inquiry be conducted—including an autopsy—and that the results be made public. According to the official Iranian news…
New York, July 10, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned about Canadian-Iranian free-lance photographer Zahra Kazemi who is currently in serious condition in a hospital in Iran’s capital, Tehran. Kazemi, who has contributed to Recto Verso, a Montreal-based magazine, and the London-based photo agency Camera Press, is in a coma in a…