Reporters Without Borders 'concerned' for health of Mousavi and Karroubi

Following the release of a report by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon on the worsening human rights situation in Iran and the expulsion of Agence France-Presse (AFP)’s bureau chief, Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has called for an investigation to be carried out on the ongoing crackdown on Iranian journalists and states that the authorities have “intensified” the “crackdown on media professionals.”

As of late, accreditations for foreign media journalists have been revoked by the Iranian ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. According to RWB, in addition to AFP’s Jay Deshmuk, “[s]everal other journalists have been expelled but their organizations prefer not to make the expulsion public in the hope that this will increase their chances of sending a replacement.”

On 14 March 2011 the UN secretary-general stated in a report to the UN’s Human Rights Council that that he was “deeply troubled by reports of increased executions, amputations, arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and possible torture and ill-treatment of human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and opposition activists”. He regretted that no UN human rights investigators had been allowed to visit Iran since 2005, noted RWB.

In statement published the group's website on Tuesday, the media watchdog expressed its support for the resolution presented by several countries, including Sweden, Zambia, Macedonia and the United States calling on the United Nations to appoint a special rapporteur to investigate and report on the continuing violations of fundamental rights in Iran and demanded the Iranian regime’s "full cooperation."

“This resolution provides hope for hundreds of Iranians imprisoned in inhuman conditions and for dozens of others facing the death penalty. The organisation calls on all UN Security Council members to vote in favour of this text,” said the group.

It also expressed concerns regarding the continued house arrest—and according to some accounts “arrest”—of Green Movement leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, maintaining that Mousavi and Karroubi, "along with their wives, are still being detained. At a prison in Evin, or at home with interrogators from Evin, the result is the same: they are not free. We are concerned for their health. Iran must bring an end to this situation."

“The regime in Tehran is continuing to squeeze the media and independent information. A dozen foreign journalists were stripped of their press cards following a demonstration on 15 February that attracted tens of thousands of people in support of the uprising in Egypt.”

source: GVF