The US National Push Club has honored two jailed Iranian journalists who 1st described the loss of life in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, which led to their arrest.
The Countrywide Press Club, the world’s main professional organization for journalists with a 115-year historical past, named Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi as the 2023 international honorees for the Club’s optimum honor for press flexibility, the John Aubuchon Award.
Iran International’s Bozorgmehr Sharafedin – earlier with Reuters – was also amongst the winners of the prestigious Nationwide Push Club Journalism Awards, winning Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence for co-authoring investigative report “America’s Throwaway Spies: How the CIA failed Iranian informants in its solution war with Tehran.” He wrote the Reuters Unique Report with Joel Schectman in 2022.
“This has been a year of momentous battle for push independence in Iran. According to reports, as several as 90 journalists ended up arrested through the protests that adopted the murder of Mahsa Amini by the Iranian morality law enforcement. Our honorees: Niloofar and Elaheh, developed some of the journalism that informed Mahsa’s tale and captured the hearts of protestors and specifically Iranian women,” read through a Friday statement by the club.
The two journalists – from reformist Iranian dailies Shargh and Ham-Mihan – have been imprisoned for about 300 times because the regime blames them for the nationwide protests that followed the loss of life of the 22-year-outdated girl.
Due to the fact her tragic loss of life, Amini has become the icon of Girls, Life, Liberty movement, the boldest rebellion the regime has confronted due to the fact its establishment.
A drawing featuring imprisoned journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi on the entrance website page of the newspaper “Ham-Mihan” on October 30, 2022. The main title reads ‘Ban the journalism’ referring to the assertion by the Tehran journalists’ association versus the prisoning journalists in excess of covering protests in Iran.
Hamedi, managed to pay a visit to Mahsa Amini in Tehran’s Kasra healthcare facility and broke the news of her grave affliction following getting taken into the custody of the ‘morality’ law enforcement 3 times earlier for donning her hijab “improperly”. Amini was in a coma with severe head wounds at the time and Hamedi’s picture of Mahsa’s mothers and fathers hugging and crying went viral. She was arrested just days afterwards. Mohammadi, furthermore, managed to journey to Amini’s hometown of Saqqez in western Iran to report on her funeral on September 17, which hundreds attended. She was arrested for her coverage of Mahsa’s funeral and the unrest all around it.
The Islamic Republic is identified to crack down on folks who reveal corruption and wrongdoing in Iran, with authorities announcing that reporting the crimes is even worse than the crimes on their own.
The two journalists, whose second courtroom hearing was held this week, have been charged with propaganda versus the regime and conspiracy to dedicate functions from national security, which could bear dying sentences. The duo have become symbols of totally free journalism and resistance from the regime’s oppressive rule, with a big number of men and women calling for freedom in their posts.
The Countrywide Press Club added in the statement, “In the existing local weather the international journalism group has labored hard to raise consciousness of Niloofar and Elaheh. They have been named to Time magazine’s Time 100 Most Influential People of 2023, between other recognition,” highlighting that “This Aubuchon award is currently being announced at this time to assist attract interest to these two courageous ladies and to protest their brutal treatment method.” “We adamantly call for their basic safety and release.”
The outlet affiliated to the ultraconservative Paydari Entrance wrote that “reliable information” implies the two “participated in instruction courses of institutions that search for the overthrow [of the Islamic Republic] and had connections with international intelligence companies,”
Iran’s intelligence ministry and SAS, the intelligence business of the Innovative Guards (IRGC) even accused Mohammadi and Hamedi of becoming CIA brokers. “Using the cover of a journalist, she was one particular of the initial people who arrived at the clinic and provoked the family of the deceased and published specific news,” they said in a joint statement.
