LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday called on Iran to release a journalist serving an 18-month sentence in a notorious Tehran prison for giving an interview to the BBC.
Hassan Fathi, a freelance columnist and former editor of the Iranian daily Ettelaat, is an inmate at Evin Prison. His jail term began on May 6 after he lost an appeal against his 2018 conviction, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported.
Fathi told the UK-based Iran International television channel that he was arrested on May 26, 2018 after he talked to BBC Persian Television about the re-election of President Hassan Rouhani. The Revolutionary Court of Tehran charged him with “spreading lies and disrupting public opinion,” and released him on bail in June 2018, he said.
The Tehran Appeals Court rejected his final appeal on May 2 this year and ordered him to begin his sentence, according to HRANA.
BBC Persian condemned the continuing attempts by the Iranian authorities to suppress freedom of speech.
“The long and continuing campaign of harassment against BBC Persian by the Iranian authorities has been extended to other international media outlets and, in the case of Hassan Fathi, to independent analysts and contributors,” a BBC Persian spokesman told Arab News. “These attempts to stifle free expression were condemned in an unprecedented joint statement at the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) in March of this year.”
The CPJ urged the Iranian authorities to release Fathi immediately and drop the charges against him.
“Iranian authorities must stop their absurd practice of imprisoning journalists solely for speaking to foreign media outlets, especially during a pandemic when any jail term could be a potential death sentence,” said Sherif Mansour, the organization’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.
Many human-rights groups have condemned the Iranian government for failing to protect inmates from COVID-19 during the pandemic and urged it to release political prisoners. Amnesty International, for example, called on the “Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.”
Conditions in many of Iran’s prisons fall well short of international standards. They are overcrowded, poorly ventilated, have limited hot-water facilities and are infested with insects, making them breeding grounds for the coronavirus.
Press-rights group urges Iran to release journalist jailed for BBC interview
https://arab.news/b3yfj
Press-rights group urges Iran to release journalist jailed for BBC interview
- BBC Persian condemned the continuing attempts by the Iranian authorities to suppress freedom of speech
- The Revolutionary Court of Tehran charged Fathi with “spreading lies and disrupting public opinion”
Israel arrests 2 Turkish CNN journalists over live broadcast outside IDF HQ
- Police said reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility
- Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites
LONDON: Israeli police have arrested two Turkish CNN journalists who were broadcasting live outside the Israel Defense Forces’ headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Police said the pair were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility, according to the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit.
Reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, from the network’s Turkish-language channel, had been reporting near the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters on Tuesday after Iran launched another missile barrage at Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.
During the live broadcast, two men believed to be soldiers approached the crew and seized the reporter’s phone, according to initial reports and a video circulating online that could not be independently verified.
Police said officers were dispatched after receiving reports of two people carrying cameras and allegedly broadcasting in real time for a foreign outlet.
עיתונאים של CNN טורקיה נעצרו לאחר שצילמו את בסיס הקרייה@NoamIhmels pic.twitter.com/t8a5P9yXfw
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) March 3, 2026
Israel’s long-standing military censorship system, overseen by the IDF Military Censor, has long barred journalists and civilians from publishing material deemed harmful to national security.
Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites.
After a series of similar incidents involving foreign media — most of them Palestinian citizens of Israel working for Arab-language and international media, along with foreign journalists — during the 12-Day War, Israeli police halted live international broadcasts from missile impact sites, citing concerns that exact locations were being revealed.
The Government Press Office later imposed a blanket ban on live coverage from crash and impact areas.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir subsequently ordered that all foreign journalists obtain prior written approval from the military censor before broadcasting — live or recorded — from combat zones or missile strike locations.
Police said that when officers asked the CNN Turk crew to identify themselves, they presented expired press cards and were taken in for questioning.
Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications, condemned the arrests as an attack on the press and said Ankara is working to secure the journalists’ release.
