Double Standards Against Journalists

This photo with Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi is from the day the Tehran Journalists Association held the ceremony to introduce impactful reports. Both were among the honorees. Yet, both are currently imprisoned for fulfilling their professional duties.

Elaheh and Niloufar possess the skills and qualifications needed to produce credible reports. Their work could make people less reliant on unofficial sources and provide officials with the necessary awareness about the state of the country, its deficiencies, and its problems.

Currently, 24 journalists and photographers are in detention. Many others have been summoned and interrogated, while even more have faced warnings and threats. The role of journalists is to inform and educate.

However, while media professionals are under pressure from summons and detentions, some individuals and media outlets continue to speak and behave as they please. They spread hatred, exacerbate polarization, and use the most vulgar and derogatory language against protesters. No action is taken against them, and they are even invited by state media to spread their inflammatory rhetoric, incite conflict, and use harsh language. This represents a double standard for citizens and news dissemination.

On one hand, some media outlets have free rein to report news and events, while on the other hand, some media cannot publish accurate information. This situation indicates a failure in journalistic standards. It raises the question of why, when the official system claims to support official information dissemination, some media can go beyond this view and publish news from their own perspective, while others cannot?

Journalists should not be in prison. We hope for the freedom of all journalists.

-Afshin Amirshahi