Iran detains Italian journalist in Tehran

The Iranian police arrested journalist Cecilia Sala, from the Italian newspaper, on December 19 in Tehran. Il Fogliohis media outlet reported this Friday. Sala, who entered the country with a valid visa, according to the newspaper, was arrested in Tehran by security forces while she was working and has remained since then in the Evin prison, famous for housing political prisoners and partly under the control of the intelligence services. The arrest has been confirmed in a statement from the Italian Government, which has indicated that it is in contact with the Iranian authorities to “clarify” the legal situation of the informant.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also specified that the Italian ambassador to Iran, Paola Amadei, visited the prison this Friday “to verify the conditions and status of detention” of Sala. The journalist has been able to call her family by phone on two occasions, according to the source. Roma has requested – after speaking with the reporter’s parents – “to exercise maximum discretion to facilitate a quick and positive resolution of the matter.” In that sense, Il Fogliohas explained that it has only made the journalist’s arrest public “after receiving diplomatic assurances that informing readers of the news of her arrest would not slow down diplomatic efforts to bring her home.”

Different human rights organizations have denounced that the Iranian authorities imprison foreign citizens, especially Westerners, to put pressure on their countries of origin or obtain the release of Iranians imprisoned in the prisons of those States. The case of Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian aid worker, was one of the best known. Arrested in Tehran and sentenced to 28 years in prison without the charges against him being known, the Government of his country denounced that the sentence was a retaliation for the prison sentence imposed on the Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assad, whom an Antwerp court He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for planning a failed bomb attack in France. Both ended up being exchanged in May 2023, with the mediation of Oman.

In the fall of 2022, shortly after the death in police custody of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Yina Amini, who had been arrested on September 13 accused of not wearing the mandatory veil, Iran detained two Spanish citizens, the activist Ana Baneira, released after four months of confinement, and the adventurer Santiago Sánchez Cogedor, who was held in Iran for 15 months.

Iranian journalists

Iran is one of the countries in the world where it is most dangerous to practice journalism, especially for local reporters. This year, Tehran ranked 176 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The NGO has assured that Iran “has strengthened its position among the most repressive countries in the world in terms of press freedom”, especially since the beginning of the protests over Amini’s death on September 16, 2022. RSF counts on More than 70 reporters are detained in Iranian prisons, where they face sentences ranging up to the death penalty. In 2023 alone, at least six journalists, all women, were sentenced to prison terms of more than 10 years. “The country is becoming one of the largest prisons for journalists in the world,” concludes the NGO’s review.

Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, the two journalists who revealed the case of Mahsa Amini, have become one of the most notable examples of the repression of the press by the Iranian authorities. They were arrested for 17 months and, after their release, accused in court by the Prosecutor’s Office for not wearing the Islamic veil, which is mandatory in Iran. In Iran, the 1986 Press Law allows authorities to monitor journalists so that they do not “attack the Islamic Republic,” “offend the clergy and the Supreme Guide [el ayatolá Ali Jamenei]” or “spread false information.” According to RSF, this supervision extends beyond borders: abroad, media professionals “are not immune to pressures, ranging from online harassment to death threats.”

A report published in October by the NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran reported that Iranian authorities arrested or sentenced at least 34 journalists in the first half of 2024. As of October 24, at least seven informants were imprisoned.