Forty-one journalists have been confirmed detained by Iran since protests broke out last month over the death of a woman in the custody of the country's so-called morality police.
Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman, was arrested in September for improperly wearing her hijab. She died three days after her arrest. Iran has violently suppressed the protests that followed, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has documented that as of Wednesday, 41 journalists have been detained. A handful were later released on bail. Most are accused of taking part in the protests they were covering.
But CPJ and other journalists' rights organizations remain concerned for those behind bars, including journalists detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Four journalists believed held in Evin are still unaccounted for after a fire at the facility on Saturday, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
IFJ reported it had identified at least 10 journalists in the prison, including some detained in relation to the protests. Of those, six contacted family to say they were safe. But as of Monday, the families of four others had heard nothing since the fire.
“We are very concerned about the fate of our colleagues in Evin and remind the Iranian authorities that they are responsible for the lives of journalists in prison,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger said in a statement.
Bellanger called for the “release of all journalists who are unfairly detained in Evin and other prisons in Iran for doing their job.”