Journalist Saba Azarpeik arrested in Iran

The Guardian - Azarpeik, who has been critical of the state's treatment of journalists and opposition figures, was picked up by judicial authorities in Tehran

Iranian security forces have arrested Saba Azarpeik, a prominent journalist working for a number of reformist publications in Tehran, including Etemaad daily.

Numerous sources said on Wednesday that Azarpeik was picked up from the offices of Tejarat-e-Farda, a pro-reform weekly based in the Iranian capital.

It was not clear if the officials had obtained a warrant for her arrest before raiding the weekly's office, and whether she has been allowed access to her lawyer. Iranian opposition websites which carried reports about her arrest did not say where she was being held.

Azarpeik has been arrested before, including in January 2013 when security officials raided at least four newspapers and arrested several journalists in advance of the presidential elections that gave Hassan Rouhani a victory.

Azarpeik has been critical of the state's treatment of journalists and opposition figures and has repeatedly grilled officials and politicians in her interviews. She has been particularly under pressure for her comments and reports on her Facebook page. She particularly covered the case of the Iranian blogger, Sattar Beheshti, whose death in custody brought embarrassment for the authorities.

The harassment and intimidation of journalists has continued under Rouhani but his government has little to do with the arrests. They are mostly carried out by the country's judiciary, which is close to conservatives, and the elite Revolutionary Guards. At least three newspapers have been shut down since Rouhani took office last year.

Despite this, Rouhani has significant power, and can use the presidency as a bully pulpit to influence other political institutions, including the judiciary. So far, however, the president has not done enough, at least in public, to change the situation of political prisoners, including the two main opposition leaders under house arrest, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

Dozens of journalists and bloggers remain behind bars in Iran, including the reformist Serajeddin Mirdamadi who was arrested last week after being summoned to court.

While in jail, a number of journalists have been subjected to humiliating phyical abuse, including being forced to run a gauntlet of guards armed with batons.

In April, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that at least seven journalists were beaten in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, including Mohammad Davari, Saeed Matin-Pour, Omid Behroozi, Seyed Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Siamak Ghaderi, Saeed Haeri and Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand.

In recent years, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented the mistreatment of journalists in Iran, which was the world's second largest jailer of journalists in 2013, behind Turkey. On World Press Freedom Day earlier this year, the CPJ called on Iran to release Siamak Ghaderi, a journalist who dared to interview a group of homosexuals in the country. He was reportedly lashed 60 times in 2012 and is currently serving a four-year jail sentence.