In the first month of the year 2025, the suppression of free speech and organized disruption of free information dissemination in Iran continued unabated. Journalists and Iranian media faced summonses to judicial bodies, threats from security agencies, temporary detention, the formation of legal cases, and the issuance of heavy prison sentences in January 2025.
Based on documented cases by researchers from the Defending Free Flow of Information organization (DeFFI), in January, at least 19 journalists and media outlets were prosecuted and faced security actions. In just one month, at least 10 new legal cases were formed against journalists, one journalist experienced temporary detention, judicial and security agencies violated the legal rights of journalists being prosecuted in at least 20 instances, and the issuance of prison sentences against journalists tripled compared to the same period last year.
The findings of this report are based on conversations held by the DeFFI with informed sources, published reports in collaborating media, statements from officials and state media, and statistical analysis of collected data.
However, the statistics and recorded events in this report only include data that the Defending Free Flow of Information was able to collect, verify, and document. Due to the multi-layered suppression mechanisms in Iran, it is likely that the violations of the rights of media, journalists, and citizen reporters in Iran are greater than the statistics and recorded events in this report.
The year 2025 began with at least 9 journalists continuing to be imprisoned in Iranian prisons. Nasrin Hasani in Bojnurd prison, Jina Modares Gorji in Sanandaj prison, Shirin Saeedi, Vida Rabani, Saideh Shafiei, Rohollah Nakhaei, Mostafa Neimati, Reza Vali-Zadeh, and Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist, entered the new year in Tehran prison. The number of imprisoned journalists at the beginning of 2025 increased by three compared to the same date in 2024, when six journalists were incarcerated in Iranian prisons.
On January 7 of this year, with the arrest of Mehrdad Aladin, a documentarian and reporter from the “Didban Iran”, the number of imprisoned journalists in Iran rose to 10. After enduring 12 days of temporary detention, Mehrdad Aladin was released from Evin Prison on bail. By the end of January 2025, at least eight journalists remained imprisoned in Iranian prisons.
In the last days of 2024, Iranian security agencies arrested Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who had traveled to the country on a journalistic visa. Ms. Sala was transferred to solitary confinement in Ward 209 of Evin Prison, deprived of access to basic human living conditions, and her visits and phone communications with relatives were restricted.
The Islamic Republic of Iran arrested Cecilia Sala just three days after an Iranian citizen named Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi was detained at Milan airport on charges of “providing electronic components for producing deadly weapons such as drones for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” and “financing terrorism.” The simultaneous nature of these arrests once again raised speculations about the Islamic Republic’s attempts to use the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals to exchange with its citizens abroad.
After three weeks of detention in Iran, Cecilia Sala returned to her home country, Italy. Just five days after Ms. Sala’s release, Italy took a controversial action by releasing Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi and returning him to Iran.
The Simultaneity of Arrests and Summonses of Civil Activists and Journalists in Iran
At the beginning of 2025, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched a widespread wave of repression against civil activists and Iranian citizens—particularly ethnic minorities—across the country. In a short period, hundreds of Baluch, Arab, Azerbaijani Turk, and Kurdish citizens were arrested, and hundreds more were summoned to judicial and security agencies, while the issuance of heavy prison sentences against civil activists increased.
Alongside the crackdown on citizens and civil activists, a new wave of judicial and security actions against Iranian journalists also commenced. In just one week, judicial and security agencies pursued at least five journalists through house searches, the confiscation of personal belongings, summonses, and threats.
Alieh Motallebzadeh was summoned to the Tehran District Court 33 (Evin), while the IRGC Intelligence of Tehran accused journalist Maryam Shokrani of “blackening the image” and threatened her with “consequences” following her summons to this agency. Judicial agents entered the home of Pejman Mousavi, searched the residence, and confiscated the mobile phone of this Tehran-based journalist. Agents from the Ministry of Intelligence searched the home of Zhila Bani-Yaqoub, another Tehran-based journalist, confiscating personal items belonging to her and her husband—including a mobile phone and laptop—and Omid Faraghat, a journalist residing in Alborz province, was summoned to the Tehran District Court 33 (Evin) and a legal case was formed against him.
The new wave of repression against Iranian journalists continued until the end of January. The simultaneity of the extensive suppression of civil activists and citizens in various regions of Iran with the onset of the new round of judicial and security actions against journalists stems from the concerns of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the beginning of a new wave of public protests. With increasing discontent among citizens due to the dire economic conditions in Iran, judicial and security agencies sought to disrupt journalists’ professional duties through “preventive suppression,” to obstruct citizens’ access to credible and timely news, and to diminish the influence of journalists on public opinion.
Continued Issuance of Illegal Sentences Against Journalists and Media
Based on documented cases by the Defending Free Flow of Information organization, in the first month of 2025, political and press courts, or judges of the judicial system, issued, at least in five cases, indictments against journalists and media outlets or prison sentences against them.
Within just one month, at least 10 legal cases were formed against journalists and media outlets, press courts issued indictments in at least two cases, and a total of 12 years in prison and supplementary punishments were imposed on at least three journalists.
In January, the Revolutionary Court of Karaj sentenced Azhdar Peiri to one year in prison and two years of prohibition from activity in cyberspace. Reza Vali-Zadeh was sentenced in the appellate court to 10 years in prison, a two-year ban on residence in Tehran and neighboring provinces, a two-year prohibition from leaving the country, and a two-year ban on membership in political and social groups. The Revolutionary Court of Isfahan sentenced Hossein Yazdi to one year in prison, two years of prohibition from leaving the country, two years of prohibition from activity in cyberspace, two years of deprivation of social rights as stated in Article 26 of the Islamic Penal Code, and confiscation of his mobile phone.
“Spreading falsehoods with the intent to disrupt public opinion” was the most frequently attributed charge against journalists and media outlets in the first month of 2025; a charge that had also been repeated more than any other charge in press cases the previous year. “Spreading falsehoods with the intent to disrupt public opinion” occurred five times, and “propaganda against the system” occurred four times, making them the most common charges in press cases.
In January 2025, judicial and security agencies violated the legal rights of journalists and media outlets subjected to prosecution in at least 20 instances.
In just one month, threats and harassment of journalists by security forces, the holding of trials without public access, and conducting trials without the presence of a jury, each occurred three times, making them the most frequently recorded violations by the Defendin Free Flow of Information against the judicial and security institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
With the beginning of 2025, the violations of the rights of Reza Vali-Zadeh, an Iranian-American journalist, continued. In Vali-Zadeh’s case, several instances of violations of this journalist’s rights were recorded. He was deprived of access to a lawyer for a long time after his arrest, was denied visits or phone calls with his family during the preliminary investigations— which lasted for months— experienced solitary confinement, and the prolonged isolation and forced televised interviews constituted examples of psychological torture. The court issued a 10-year prison sentence against him without adhering to fair trial standards, in the absence of a jury and in a closed session, and he was held in inhumane conditions during his temporary detention.
A similar situation was imposed on Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist. After her arrest, Cecilia Sala was transferred to one of the solitary confinement cells in Evin Prison, deprived of access to basic human living standards, kept on the ground in solitary confinement during the winter cold with only two blankets, her glasses were taken from her, and the books and hygiene items sent by the Italian embassy in Tehran were not provided to her. Additionally, her communication with relatives was restricted by the authorities.
