Iran shuts downjournalists' associafion Reutcrs.com htq://www.reuters.coni'ardclePrint?artic leld=USTRE57547T20090806
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Iran shuts down journalists' association
Thu Aug 6, 2009 11:52am EDT
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have shut down a leading journalists'
organization, members of the group said on Thursday, a move condemned
by international press groups.
Armed men raided and sealed the Tehran offices of the Association of
Iranian Journalists late on Wednesday, said the International Federation of
Journalists (I FJ) which also called for Iran to free up to 42 reporters
currently jailed.
“It is true, it has been closed down,” said a member of the Iranian
association who declined to be named.
“Government actions against media and journalists erode further the
credibility and standing of the Government in national and the world opinion,”
the IFJ said in a statement.
Iran has arrested dozens of leading pro-reform politicians, journalists,
lawyers and campaigners since the June 12 presidential election which
ref ormists say was rigged in favor of hardline President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
A court opened the mass trial of more than 100 reformists on Saturday on
charges of inciting the unrest that followed the election; the biggest
anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“I ran must not make journalists scapegoats for its political troubles,” the I FJ
said.
Iran accuses the West of fomenting protests against the election which
officials say was the healthiest in the history of the Islamic Republic.
(Wrfting by Jon Hemming)
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