{"id":2193,"date":"2020-12-14T21:19:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T21:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=139264"},"modified":"2020-12-14T21:19:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T21:19:35","slug":"spj-outraged-after-execution-of-iranian-journalist-ruhollah-zam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/14\/spj-outraged-after-execution-of-iranian-journalist-ruhollah-zam\/","title":{"rendered":"SPJ Outraged After Execution of Iranian Journalist Ruhollah Zam"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WASHINGTON – The Society of Professional Journalists<\/a> condemns the execution of dissident Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was hanged Saturday morning in Iran. SPJ joins Amnesty International<\/a>, the Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> and Reporters Without Borders<\/a> in expressing outrage at Zam\u2019s execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe killing of a journalist is reprehensible. It silences one but won\u2019t stop the work of tens of thousands of others worldwide, including in Iran,\u201d said SPJ National President Matthew T. Hall. \u201cWe want Ruhollah Zam\u2019s killers to know his life will not be forgotten. It will spur us to work more diligently and share more truths with the world in his name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zam\u2019s online work helped inspire nationwide economic protests in Iran in 2017<\/a>. His website AmadNews and a channel he created on Telegram had spread the timings of the protests and information about officials. Zam had been living in exile in France until October 2019<\/a> when he was tricked into traveling to Iraq where he was abducted and forcibly returned to Iran. In June, Zam was convicted of \u201ccorruption on Earth,\u201d a charge often used for attempts to overthrow Iran\u2019s government, and sentenced to death for his work.<\/p>\n

CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said<\/a>, \u201cWith the execution of Roohollah Zam, Iranian authorities join the company of criminal gangs and violent extremists who silence journalists by murdering them. This is a monstrous and shameful act, and one which the international community must not let pass unnoticed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Diana Eltahawy said<\/a>, \u201cHis execution is a deadly blow to freedom of expression in Iran and shows the extent of the Iranian authorities\u2019 brutal tactics to instill fear and deter dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has been one of the world\u2019s most repressive countries for journalists<\/a> for the past 40 years, according to Reporters Without Borders. At least 860 journalists and citizen-journalists have been imprisoned or executed since 1979.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 The\u00a0Society of Professional Journalists\u00a0condemns the execution of dissident Iranian journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was hanged Saturday morning in Iran. SPJ joins\u00a0Amnesty International, the\u00a0Committee to Protect Journalists\u00a0and\u00a0Reporters\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2194,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2193\/revisions\/2194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}