Free Iranian Journalist Saba Azarpeik

 Acts supporting her , Please !

On May 28, 2014 Iranian security forces arrested Saba Azarpeik, a prominent journalist working for a number of reformist publications in Tehran, including Etemaad daily.

Ms. Azarpeik was picked up from the offices of Tejarat-e-Farda, a pro-reform weekly based in the Iranian capital.

It was not clear if the officials had obtained a warrant for her arrest before raiding the weekly's office, and whether she has been allowed access to her lawyer. Iranian opposition websites which carried reports about her arrest did not say where she was being held.

Azarpeik has been arrested before, including in January 2013 when security officials raided at least four newspapers and arrested several journalists in advance of the presidential elections that gave Hassan Rouhani a victory. 

Azarpeik has been critical of the state's treatment of journalists and opposition figures and has repeatedly grilled officials and politicians in her interviews. She has been particularly under pressure for her comments and reports on her Facebook page. She particularly covered the case of the Iranian blogger, Sattar Beheshti, whose death in custody brought embarrassment for the authorities. 

While in jail, a number of journalists have been subjected to humiliating phyical abuse, including being forced to run a gauntlet of guards armed with batons. 

In April, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that at least seven journalists were beaten in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, including Mohammad Davari, Saeed Matin-Pour, Omid Behroozi, Seyed Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Siamak Ghaderi, Saeed Haeri and Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand.

In recent years, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented the mistreatment of journalists in Iran, which was the world's second largest jailer of journalists in 2013, behind Turkey. On World Press Freedom Day earlier this year, the CPJ called on Iran to release Siamak Ghaderi, a journalist who dared to interview a group of homosexuals in the country. He was reportedly lashed 60 times in 2012 and is currently serving a four-year jail sentence.


http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/free-iranian-journalist-saba-azarpeik.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2014/may/28/journalist-saba-azarpeik-arrested-in-iran