Watchdog

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned a five-year prison sentence recently imposed on Iranian journalist Yashar Soltani and called on Iran to stop persecuting journalists for doing their job.

"Jailing a journalist for reporting about corruption in his country is unacceptable and will only ensure that corruption continues unchecked," CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator Sherif Mansour said in a statement released on January 25.

On January 23, an Iranian court sentenced journalist Soltani, who had investigated corruption in municipal real-estate sales in Tehran, to five years in prison after finding him guilty of "spreading lies" and "gathering classified information with the intent to harm national security."

Soltani was also banned from participating in political and media activities, or traveling outside the country for two years after his release, Iranian media reported.

The sentence can be appealed within 20 days.

Soltani called the sentence "unjust" in a January 23 tweet, while vowing to "turn the verdict into an opportunity to fight corruption" in the country.

“We will not hand over Iran to the corrupt," he said on Twitter.

Soltani was first arrested over his reporting on municipal land deals in September 2016, after former Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf and municipal council chairman Mehdi Chamran filed a lawsuit against him.

He was released about two months later on bail.

Eight journalists were found to be imprisoned in Iran in direct relation to their work at the time of the CPJ's December 2018 prison census.

Iran ranks 164th on Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

The Paris-based media watchdog calls Iran "one of the world's five biggest prisons for journalists and citizen-journalists."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called the criminal prosecution of a Russian activist affiliated with the Open Russia civic movement as a “blatant attack on freedom of association in Russia.”

The case against Anastasia Shevchenko is the first time that Russian authorities have criminally prosecuted an activist for alleged involvement with a so-called “undesirable” foreign organization, the New York-based human rights watchdog said in a statement on January 24.

“Both the draconian law and this prosecution are being used solely to intimidate activists trying to counter corruption, election fraud, and human rights violations in Russia,” Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, said in a statement.

On January 21, law enforcement agents in Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, and Ulyanovsk raided the homes of nine activists affiliated with Open Russia and then interrogated them, according to HRW.

Shevchenko was charged with violating the “undesirable organization” law, and two days later a court in Rostov-on-Don transferred her to house arrest until March 20.

If found guilty, she could face up to six years in prison.

The “undesirable organization” law, adopted in May 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations who received funding from foreign sources.

Last year, Russian authorities formally listed Open Russia under the law.

The group was founded by former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky after he was released from prison and fled Russia.

Once Russia’s wealthiest man, Khodorkovsky was prosecuted in the early 2000s on financial fraud charges, and his company, Yukos, was dismantled and sold off in suspect bankruptcy auctions.

“With Shevchenko’s prosecution, the authorities are emphasizing their message of intimidation that peaceful criticism of the government can land you in prison for years,” said Denber.

In a statement on January 21, Amnesty International said that the Russian authorities have "progressively suffocated and criminalized dissent," adding that Open Russia had become “the latest victim of this crackdown.”