WAN - Press Freedom World Review

WAN - Press Freedom World Review: "Conservative forces in Iran continue to exert measures to stifle the country�s fledgling, yet vocal, independent press, and the pressure appears to have worsened in the past six months. Cyber dissidents and �bloggers� have emerged to fill the void left by the closure of traditional media outlets. Many of them are now aggressively under attack by the authorities. Mojtaba Lotfi is currently serving a prison sentence in the southern city of Qom for articles he posted on the Internet. Yosef Azizi Banitrouf, a prominent reformist journalist and author of over twenty publications, was arrested in April during a press conference hosted by a local human rights organisation.
There are currently 12 journalists and cyber-dissidents in jail in Iran, which remains the Middle East�s biggest prison for journalists. The horrifying revelations of the torture and sexual abuse endured by Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died while in custody in June of last year, have further discredited Iran�s already lamentable press freedom record."