{"id":8044,"date":"2010-02-11T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T15:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=8044"},"modified":"2017-07-21T10:00:14","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T09:00:14","slug":"open-letter-to-ayatollah-khamenei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=8044","title":{"rendered":"Open letter to Ayatollah Khamenei"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, Index on Censorship and international free speech campaigners call on Iran to release the more than 60 writers, journalists, and bloggers currently in prison<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From\u00a0Index on Censorship,\u00a0the Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN, Reporters Sans Fronti\u00e8res, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and the International Publishers Association<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

February 10, 2010<\/p>\n

Dear Ayatollah Khamenei,<\/p>\n

We, the undersigned, organisations dedicated to freedom of expression, are writing on the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Revolution to urge you to free all writers, journalists, and editors<\/a> currently in\u00a0prison<\/a> for carrying out their professions in Iran.<\/p>\n

During the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomenei spoke of building a new society that would protect human rights and celebrate the Iranian people\u2019s freedom of expression. In fact, in an interview on November 7, 1978, he pledged that \u201cOur future society will be a free society and all the elements of oppression, cruelty, and force will be destroyed.\u201d Sadly, in many of the years since then, and most especially since last year\u2019s presidential elections, the world has seen the Iranian government betray these principles, openly suppressing dissent, silencing journalists, writers, and bloggers, and jailing citizens from all walks of life who joined or supported peaceful demonstrations.<\/p>\n

As organisations representing journalists, writers, publishers, and free expression advocates around the world, we are especially concerned about the toll these actions have taken on our colleagues in Iran. By our count,\u00a0at least 60 writers<\/a>, journalists, and bloggers remain behind bars today in violation of the protections guaranteed in the Islamic Republic of Iran\u2019s constitution and in international law. This list constitutes the largest number of our colleagues jailed by any country on earth at one time in over a decade.<\/p>\n

On February 15, Iran will come before the United Nation\u2019s Human Rights Council as part of the\u00a0UN\u2019s Universal Periodic Review process<\/a>. The\u00a0report<\/a> that your own country submitted to the Human Rights Council notes that Iran\u2019s constitution guarantees \u201chuman dignity, political and civil rights that include democracy, prohibition of depriving people of their fundamental freedoms,\u2026freedom of expression, respect for the privacy of people, freedom of political parties and peaceful assemblies, prohibition of arbitrary arrests,\u201d and that \u201cAll forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confession or acquiring information are forbidden.\u201d Yet the crackdown on free expression in the last eight months, and the dozens of writers, journalists, and bloggers still behind bars in your country, tell quite another story.<\/p>\n

We do not ask you to act outside your laws or the ideals of the Iranian revolution. Rather, we entreat you to uphold the pledges of Ayatollah Khomenei and the promises of the Iranian constitution by releasing all writers, journalists, and bloggers currently behind bars for covering the news and expressing their views in Iran.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Lisa Appignanesi, President
\nEnglish PEN<\/a><\/p>\n

John Kampfner, Chief Executive
\nIndex on Censorship<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Steiger, Board Chairman
\nCommittee to Protect Journalists<\/a><\/p>\n

Marian Botsford Frasier, Chair
\nWriters in Prison Committee of International PEN<\/a><\/p>\n

Kwame Anthony Appiah, President
\nPEN American Center<\/a><\/p>\n

Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Julliard, Secretary General
\nReporters Sans Fronti\u00e8res<\/a><\/p>\n

Annie Game, Executive Director
\nCanadian Journalists for Free Expression<\/a><\/p>\n

Jens Bammel, General Secretary
\nInternational Publishers Association<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution, Index on Censorship and international free speech campaigners call on Iran to release the more than 60 writers, journalists, and bloggers currently in prison<\/p>\n

PLUS:<\/strong> Maziar Bahari calls on the regime to let his colleagues go<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4,4060,581,6534],"tags":[1729,7359,110],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8044"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80188,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8044\/revisions\/80188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}