Two more reporters arrested
Teheran (dpa) - Two more Iranian reporters have been arrested, one of
them a young woman from a former liberal daily and the other from a radical
weekly, the daily Tehran Times reported Sunday.
Camellia Entekhabi-Far, a 26-year-old journalist who used to work for
the reformist daily Zan (Woman), was arrested late last month after she
had returned from the United States, the daily said.
She was reportedly arrested four days ago and twice called her mother,
who lives in Teheran.
Entekhabi-Fard is known within the Teheran press as Iran 's Christiane
Amanpour, the Anglo- Iranian senior correspondent for CNN, for her adventurous
nature.
She has volunteered several times to go as Zan correspondent to crisis
areas such as Kosovo and even wanted to go to Afghanistan and meet officials
of the ultra-Islamic Taleban group.
Entekhabi-Fard is a devoted supporter of President Mohammad Khatami
and was also devoted to her job in the Zan daily, which was run by Faezeh
Hashemi, the daughter of former moderate President Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani
and MP and a leading reformist and women activist.
The Zan daily was closed down in April this year after it published
a New Year greeting message by former Empress Farah Diba. The daily is
still closed and awaits a trial at the Revolutionary Court, which is in
charge for national security offences.
Another reporter arrested is Reza Monjezipur from the radical Islamic
weekly Jebheh (War Front). He was arrested Friday after the mass prayer
ceremony at the Teheran University in the capital's downtown.
The editor of Jebheh, Massoud Dehnamaki, was temporarily arrested last
week for interrogation. Also the Jebheh photographer, Soheyl Karimi, has
also been arrested and believed to be in detainment since last week.
Khatami proclaimed last Wednesday that ``special measures'' are to be
adopted against radical Islamists who are locally termed as ``pressure
groups'' and who try to prevent by force the reform course initiated by
Khatami and followed by his supporters.
A press court was supposed to be held against the leading conservative
daily but it was again cancelled - for the fourth time within the last
six months - as two jury members withdrew from the trial.
Kayhan and the pro-Khatami daily Salaam are both charged by the judiciary
to have published classified information from the revolutionary guards
corps and intelligence service respectively.
Links
