Press freedom violations recounted in real time January 2016

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned about the conditions in which journalist and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi is being detained. She has been on hunger strike since 27 June in protest against her treatment and, in particular, a ban on contacting her husband and children, who live in exile in France. Her state of health is very worrying. “She is continuing her hunger strike although she has to take several medicines every day and has been the victim of convulsions in her cell twice,” her husband, Taghi Rahmani, said.

A spokesperson of the Centre for Human Rights Defenders (which has been arbitrarily banned in Iran since 2006) and a close aide of Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, Mohammadi has had many spells in prison in connection with her human rights activism. Her current period in detention began when she was arrested on 5 May 2015. She was given a 10-year jail sentence on 18 May 2016.

 At an event that RSF organized at the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris on 2 May 2016, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo awarded the City of Paris medal to four journalists proposed by RSF. One of them was Mohammadi, who sent a poignant message to the event from her Tehran cell. Her health is in danger but she is being denied the medical treatment she needs. In October 2015, she was taken from prison to a Tehran hospital, where she spent ten days handcuffed to a bed before being returned to prison against medical advice.

 Date of the article: July, 8, 2016