Iran: State Covid vaccination center guard attacks journalist

Faezeh Momeni, a reporter working for Ruydad 24 news website in Tehran, was beaten by the guard of a state vaccination center on 18 May, while she was producing a report about the vaccination process. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the attack and urges the Iranian authorities to prosecute the assailant.

Momeni shared a photo of her injuries on her Instagram account explaining that she carried out a series of interviews with doctors and health care workers of the center, but that the security guard told her to delete them.

She refused and the guard assaulted her physically and forced her to surrender and delete the footage. The assailant broke her finger and she was taken to hospital for treatment.

The Iranian authorities have been repeatedly criticized by the media and experts for not being transparent and responsive about the slow Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

In previous incidents, several media workers and journalists across the country were summoned and brought to court due to their reporting on the pandemic situation in Iran.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, judicial prosecutions and harassment on journalists have grown in Iran, particularly in the provinces of Golestan and Kermanshah.

In April 2021, the IFJ condemned the increasing judicial harassment of Iranian journalists who are simply doing their job of informing the citizens about public interest issues like corruption cases involving public officials.

IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: “The Iranian government must immediately stop the crackdown on media and put an end to all the open court procedures against journalists for simply doing their job. The assailant of Faezeh Momeni must be brought to justice”.

For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries

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