Photojournalists appeal for Iranian photographer’s release

Press photographer Maryam Majd was arrested on 16 June, before she was to travel to Germany to cover the 2012 FIFA Women’s World Football Cup. “She was to attend the event to take photographs of the ceremony and for her project on women soccer players from around the world,” says a group of 32 Iranian press photographers that has called for her release.

“We have recently learned that she is detained in ward 209 of Evin prison,” the group adds, refering to a notorious Iranian jail where political prisonners are detained.

“Although the arrest of Maryam Majd has not been confirmed by the Iranian government’s official sources, the repeated illegal actions of the state-run media have caused serious concern about this young photographer’s current condition,” says the group of press photographers. “For years Maryam Majd has covered the news through her photographs. She is one the few photographers who has always made efforts to shed light on women’s sports.”

The group has called for Majd’s unconditional release. It has also called for the Iranian Photojournalist’s Association to “act according to its responsibilities toward its members and look into Maryam Majd’s imprisonment.”

The International Press Institute has expressed its outrage at the continued detention of journalists in Iran, “which is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists,” according to IPI director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “We call upon the Iranian authorities to recognize the fundamental right of journalists everywhere to do their job without fear of arrest, imprisonment, torture and harrassment.”

Source: Freedom Messenger