The report on the suppression of media and journalists in Iran for June 2024 (June 1, 2024 – July 1, 2024), was prepared based on 43 documented cases by researchers of the “DEFENDING FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION” organization (DeFFI). Part of this report chronicles significant and impactful events in June, aiming to record the context in which the suppression of journalists and media occurred. DeFFI also aimed to identify, record, and analyze patterns of suppression of journalists and media in Iran.
In June, during the campaign for the 14th presidential election, security and judicial actions against Iranian media increased ninefold compared to the previous month. This was the most extensive media suppression in a month since the beginning of 2024. This month saw a new wave of security and judicial crackdowns on journalists and media, which intensified following the death of Ebrahim Raisi.
In June, some patterns of media and journalist suppression previously employed by the Islamic Republic’s security and judicial institutions reoccurred with minor changes. DeFFI’s investigations showed that security and judicial institutions increasingly used threatening phone calls and “warnings” (threatening to file judicial cases) instead of summonses, indictments, arrests, and case formations against journalists and media.
On Sunday, May 19, 2024, Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash along with his companions. Raisi’s death led to an early presidential election in Iran; however, unlike previous periods where the Islamic Republic reduced its suppression level against journalists and media during the election campaign, this time, 27 media outlets faced judicial prosecution in less than three weeks, setting a new record for media crackdowns in a month since the start of 2024.
A significant new event in the graph of suppressing the right to freedom of expression and disrupting free information dissemination during this period began with the issuance of a threatening directive by the Iranian Press Supervisory Board. On June 6, 2024, this board issued a five-page directive related to the 14th presidential election, threatening journalists and media activists with inhumane punishment and media outlets with closures and judicial actions.
On Sunday, June 9, 2024, just hours before the official announcement of approved candidates by the Guardian Council, journalists Yashar Soltani and Saba Azarpeyk were arrested to serve prison sentences, and journalist Sadr Mohaghegh reported the transfer of his conviction file to the enforcement branch.
The common point among the three journalists and media activists prosecuted on that Sunday was their reports exposing mismanagement or financial corruption by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his associates or their critical tweets about this approved presidential candidate.
The campaign for the 14th presidential election in Iran was conducted in a security-heavy atmosphere with widespread disruption of free information dissemination. From the first day of the campaign (June 9) to election day (June 28), in less than three weeks, at least 39 media outlets, media activists, and journalists experienced security and judicial crackdowns by the Islamic Republic.
The Tehran Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, the chief editor of Ham-Mihan newspaper, Mohammad Parsi, the manager of the Chalenge 24 news channel, and the media outlets Hashiye News and Bamdad-e-No. The Committee for Monitoring and Observing Electoral Media Violations issued “warnings” to 17 media outlets. Journalists Yashar Soltani and Saba Azarpeyk were arrested to serve prison sentences, security agents arrested Hadi Kasayi Zadeh, the chief editor of the Meydan Azadi magazine, journalist Sadr Mohaghegh reported the transfer of his conviction file to the enforcement branch, and Esfandyar Abdollahi, the head of the political desk of Didar News, was summoned to court.
Despite the widespread boycott of the election by Iranian citizens, the suppression of journalists and media continued after the first round of elections. Just two days after a new record low in voter turnout was set in Iran’s presidential election, the Qazvin Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Mostafa Jafari, a reporter for the ILNA news agency and head of Masoud Pezeshkian’s media and cyberspace campaign office in Qazvin.
June 2024 began with the continued imprisonment of Vida Rabbani and Shirin Saeedi in Evin Prison, Nasrin Hassani in Bojnord Prison, Parisa Salehi in Kachuei Prison in Karaj, and Kamyar Fakour and Rouhollah Nakhai in Evin Prison. At the end of June, with the enforcement of the prison sentences of Yashar Soltani and Saba Azarpeyk, the number of journalists and media activists imprisoned in Iran reached eight.
The first security and judicial action against journalists in June occurred when Ali Akbar Mehrabian, the Minister of Energy, and security guards of the Water and Sewerage Company of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, during the opening ceremony of a desalination project in the province, assaulted and detained IRNA photographer-reporter Alireza Sharhaki, holding him in a vehicle for some time.
According to reports received by DeFFI, the temporary detention, insult, and assault of Alireza Shahraki by the Minister of Energy’s entourage occurred while this photographer-reporter was photographing Ali Akbar Mehrabian.
DeFFI sources reported that the Minister of Energy’s entourage and the Water and Sewerage security guards “transferred Alireza Shahraki to a vehicle after assaulting him and simultaneously interrogated him while detaining him. Eventually, with the intervention of the Sistan and Baluchestan Governor’s Office public relations manager, Shahraki was released, but upon returning to the ceremony hall, he was again insulted and expelled from the hall, preventing him from performing his professional duties. The guards also clashed with the public relations manager and insulted him.”
Mid-June also saw a repeated event that further concerned Iranian media professionals about the safety of journalists working for opposition media. On June 11, 2024, Iran International TV announced that their reporter Mehran Abbasian in Sweden was moved to a safe house due to security threats.
Iran International quoted Swedish police as saying that this threat was “serious and real.” Mehran Abbasian explained to Iran International that “a gang in Sweden was recently tasked by the Islamic Republic to kill me and one of my colleagues.”
This was not the first time that Iran International journalists faced threats or attacks. Numerous incidents, especially after the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in 2022, saw journalists from this outlet being threatened, plotted against for assassination, or attacked with knives.
According to DeFFI’s documented cases, in June 2024 (June 1, 2024 – July 1, 2024), journalists, media activists, and media outlets—comprising two women, 15 men, and 27 media outlets—experienced at least 45 security and judicial actions by the Islamic Republic. The number of judicial and security actions against journalists, media activists, and media outlets was 48 in January, 49 in February, 20 in March, 46 in April, and 40 in May.
Throughout June, the Islamic Republic arrested three journalists, detained a journalist and a media activist to serve a total of two years and two months in prison, filed judicial cases against five journalists and one media manager, political and press court jurors convicted one journalist and one media manager, and one journalist was acquitted of charges after serving more than half of their sentence following a new trial request.
In June 2024, based on documented cases by DeFFI, Iranian media experienced 27 security and judicial actions, the highest number of media suppressions since the beginning of 2024. The number of security and judicial actions against media was 16 in January, 5 in February, 13 in April, 3 in March, and 3 in May of this year.
Throughout June, judicial cases were filed against three media outlets, political and press court jurors convicted one media outlet, one media outlet was convicted for publishing a report on “special drug prices,” and due to the suspension of government advertisements by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, two newspapers in Zanjan faced financial difficulties leading to potential forced closures. Additionally, 17 newspapers, news websites, and news agencies received “warnings” from the Committee for Monitoring and Observing Electoral Media Violations.
In late June, Tehran Economic Security Police visited the office of Farda-e-Eqtesad and sealed its studio. The studio of this visual media outlet was sealed under the pretext of using “smuggled” equipment, despite this studio and its equipment being sealed and inspected in February last year when Farda-e-Eqtesad was suspended for 20 days, with some equipment confiscated. The resealing of Farda-e-Eqtesad’s studio four months after the first incident, under the accusation of not paying taxes on used equipment, raised doubts about repeated extralegal actions against this media outlet.
Based on documented cases by DeFFI, in June—similar to previous months—”spreading lies to disturb public opinion,” under Article 746 of the Islamic Penal Code, with 37 cases, was once again the most frequently attributed charge to journalists and media.