At least four journalists have been summoned by judicial and security authorities, and some of their personal belongings were confiscated by security officials.
On Tuesday, January 21, 2025, judicial officials entered Pezhman Mousavi‘s home and conducted a search, confiscating the mobile phone of this journalist residing in Tehran.
The day before, Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, another journalist living in Tehran, also reported that more than 10 agents from the Ministry of Intelligence entered her home and seized personal belongings of both the journalist and her husband, including mobile phones and laptops. Ms. Bani-Yaghoub also announced her summons to the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office in Evin.
Additionally, on Tuesday, Omid Faraghat, a journalist residing in Alborz Province, reported receiving a notice for a summons to Branch 4 of the Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor’s Office of District 33 of Tehran (Evin). Mr. Faraghat had previously stated that he had been summoned by security authorities. The agents had unlawfully invited this journalist to appear at their office via a phone summons.
According to a report received by (DeFFI), agents from the Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday January 29, 2024, after the presence of Maryam Shokrani at this agency, accused this journalist of “blackening” the country’s situation without providing clear instances regarding the reasons for the summoning. The Intelligence Organization of the Revolutionary Guards summoned Ms. Shokrani to this agency through an unlawful phone call.
Maryam Shokrani, Pezhman Mousavi, Zhila Bani-Yaghoub, and Omid Faraghat have all previously experienced judicial and security confrontations. According to the annual report by the Defending Free Flow of Information (DeFFI), in 2024, at least 256 journalists and media outlets were prosecuted in Iran. During this year, prison sentences were carried out against 11 journalists, at least 36 journalists were arrested, and journalists and media activists were collectively sentenced to 69 years and 10 months in prison, 110 lashes, and fines exceeding 200 million tomans.