Iran a major prison for journalists - RSF

 Iran is the world's third biggest prison for journalists, the press freedoms group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a report published on Tuesday.

At least 18 journalists are confirmed to be in detention in Iran,RSF said in its annual "Round-up of journalists killed worldwide 2015."

Earlier this month RSF published a separate annual Round-up of journalists detained, held hostage or disappeared in 2015," in which it wrote: "Those held in Iran include several arrested in November, the latest of many journalists to be accused of membership of 'espionage networks.'”

That report added that in Iran under the mullahs' rule "the judicial system is controlled by the Supreme Leader and is manipulated by the Revolutionary Guards in order to gag reporting critical of the regime."

RSF's website lists the Iranian regime's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as a Predator of Freedom of Information.