{"id":1570,"date":"2020-12-09T08:46:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T08:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=135939"},"modified":"2020-12-09T08:46:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T08:46:35","slug":"elderly-iranian-journalist-begins-prison-term-over-protest-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/09\/elderly-iranian-journalist-begins-prison-term-over-protest-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Elderly Iranian Journalist Begins Prison Term Over Protest Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging Iran to cease jailing members of the press for their work after a 72-year-old journalist began a three-year prison sentence over his coverage of protests last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cJailing an elderly journalist in the middle of a raging pandemic shows how much contempt the Iranian judiciary has for the press,\u201d CPJ\u2019s Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said in a statement<\/a> on December 8, a day after authorities arrested Kayvan Samimi and took him to serve a three-year sentence at Tehran\u2019s Evin prison.<\/p>\n Mansour said Samimi \u201cmust be released immediately and unconditionally, as should all of the journalists being held in Iran in retaliation for their reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n Samimi was arrested in Tehran in May 2019 while he was covering labor protests for the Iran-e Farda magazine, where he worked as editor in chief.<\/p>\n He was freed on bail in June 2019 while facing charges of \u201ccolluding against national security\u201d and \u201cspreading antiestablishment propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n In April this year, a Tehran court tried Samimi in absentia, sentencing him to six years in prison.<\/p>\n Another court confirmed his conviction in May but reduced his sentence to three years, a decision that was upheld on further appeal in June.<\/p>\n Samimi previously served six years in prison over his coverage of the contested 2009 presidential election.<\/p>\n Since March, Iranian authorities have granted temporary release to tens of thousands of prisoners following concerns over the spread of the coronavirus in prisons in the Middle East’s worst-hit country. Many have since returned behind bars.<\/p>\nWith reporting by Radio Farda<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n