Death Penalty News

Hassan Rouhani NCRI - Iran under the rule of the clerical regime has been ranked #173 among 180 countries in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index and “Hassan Rouhani’s installation as president in June 2013 has not had a positive impact on freedom of information,” a report published on Friday by media rights group Reporters Without Borders said. The authorities have closed newly-created news outlets and, with the active cooperation of a judicial system and the Revolutionary Guards have orchestrated “a wave of arrests resembling the one unleashed five years earlier” after 2009 protests in Iran, the report said. “The Rouhani administration has played a role in the arrests as a silent accomplice. Iran continues to be one of the world’s five biggest prisons for news and information providers, with 50 journalists and netizens currently detained.” The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Situation of Human Rights in Iran also has expressed concern about the arbitrary and unlaw...

In recent weeks, Iranian security officials have unleashed a wave of arrests across the country in an effort to neutralize the political opposition, silence critical voices and head off widespread protests when the nation marks the anniversary of the revolution on Thursday, Iran analysts inside and outside the country said. Though the government has refrained from arresting the principal leaders of the opposition, the category of people it has pursued has grown broader over time. While a number of well-known reformists were detained shortly after the contested presidential election in June, the ranks of those imprisoned now include artists, photographers, children's rights advocates, women's rights activists, students and scores of journalists. Iran now has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world, with at least 65 in custody, according to Reporters Without Borders. Reports have filtered out from across Iran of people being roused from their beds during ...