Journalists Emily Amrayee and Narges Joudaki released

Committee of Human Rights Reporters – Emily Amrayee, reporter at the cultural and social affairs section of Bahar newspaper, and Narges Joudaki, social affairs editor of Arman newspaper, were among a group of journalists detained in late January, during a crackdown on journalists.

According to news provided to CHRR, Emily Amrayee and Nagues Joudaki were released on bail on February 24th. They were both detained on January 27th during a wave of arrests of journalists. Agents from the Ministry of Intelligence arrested Emily Amrayee at her home and Narges Joudaki at her place of work when they raided the offices of Arman.

During a two-day span in late January, agents raided the offices of several media outlets without warning and detained a number of journalists. Others were arrested at their homes. The Ministry of Intelligence has released statements claiming the journalists were involved with “anti-revolutionary media outlets” naming the BBC. They have not provided any evidence substantiating their claims and there have been reports that the detained journalists have been pressured to participate in false confessions.

To date the journalists released on bail since the crackdown in late January are Motehareh Shafiee, reporter at Arman; Ali Dehghan, business editor at Bahar; Javad Daliri, editor-in-chief of Etemad; Hossein Yaghchi, editor at Aseman Weekly; Fatemeh Sagharchi, editor for the news website Jamaran; Keyvan Mehregan, served as head of Shargh and Etemad newspapers; Emily Amrayee, reporter at the culture and social affairs section of Bahar newspaper; and Narges Joudaki, editor of the social section of Arman.

Ten journalists from this group are still being kept in prison. Milad Fadai Asl, Soleiman Mohammadi, Pejman Mousavi, Nasrin Takhayori, Sasan Aghaee, Reyhaneh Tabatabai, Pourya Ameli, Akbar Montajebi, Saba Azarpeik, are among the group of journalists detained in January who remain in custody. Ehsan Mazandarani is a reporter for Etemad who was arrested on February 20th and he also remains behind bars.