Saturday 18 July 2009

Iranian updates (keep refreshing page#49)

Cleric Says ‘Crisis’ Has Caused Loss of Public Trust@NYTimes



Tear gas being shot in front of Karroubi



Photo of the attack on Karroubi earlier today causing his turban to come off!

Watchdog accuses Iran of arresting photographers

PARIS (Reuters) - Iran has arrested at least seven photographers since its disputed presidential election, with the most recent arrests occurring less than a week ago, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Friday.

Images of blood-smeared protesters have captured the drama of the unrest provoked by last month's election result and footage of the death of a young Iranian woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, has become an icon of opposition protests.

"The Tehran regime is scared of images. The authorities have launched a real hunt on visual reporters so that no professional photo or video of sensitive subjects will leave the country," the Paris-based organization said in a statement.

Iran crushed the protests and in early July said most of the people arrested during the events had since been released.

Reporters Without Borders, an organization campaigning for press freedom, said five photographers were arrested less than a week ago.

It said the photographer Mehdi Zabouli was arrested on June 20, and his Franco-Iranian colleague Said Movahedi, on July 9.

Photographers Tohid Bighi, Majid Saidi, Satyar Emami, Marjan Abdolahian and Koroush Javan were arrested on July 11, it said, and at least five others have been injured by police or militias.

Four days after the election, Iran banned foreign media journalists from filming or taking photos of the protests, or even leaving their offices to cover the events.

(Reporting by Sophie Hardach; Editing by Angus MacSwan)@Reuters



Iran Arrests Prominent Women's Rights Lawyer - Husband
TEHRAN (AFP)--A leading Iranian lawyer and women's rights campaigner, Shadi Sadr, was arrested on her way to Friday prayers in the capital that were attended by scores of vote protesters, her husband said.
"Shadi called me from an unknown location and said she was arrested by plain clothes officials who forcefully got her into a car," Hossein Nilchian told AFP.
He said Sadr was accompanied by her friends and she was the only one taken away.
Sadr, 34, is a well-known women's rights activist and has campaigned against one of Iran's internationally condemned practices of death by stoning for adulterers. She has defended several such convicts as a lawyer.
Thousands of supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrated in Tehran streets after the weekly Muslim prayers led by influential cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Iran has jailed dozens of journalists, political activists and reformist leader in the wake of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in a June 12 poll.
At least 20 people have died in clashes with security forces and hundreds of opposition protesters have also been detained.
Rafsanjani Friday called for the release of the detainees.
@Bourse

No comments:

Post a Comment