Iran has taken the first step towards criminalising contact with foreign media, in a move human rights groups have said attempts to \u201csever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
For journalists, researchers and even ordinary citizens, the proposed law being discussed by Iranian lawmakers this month could make speaking to international audiences and groups a potential criminal act and restrict coverage of events such as January\u2019s mass anti-regime protests<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even social media platforms that the regime considers to be \u201cfinanced\u201d by another country, such as Instagram and X, would fall under the bill, said Moein Khazaeli, an Iranian human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal counselling centre for Iranian activists.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means any kind of interview, contact, or sending photographs to them [foreign media or organisations] could lead to six months to two years\u2019 imprisonment. Not just the US and Israel, but any contact with foreign media in any country could be considered a crime if one doesn\u2019t inform the intelligence ministry beforehand,\u201d said Khazaeli.<\/p>\n Among the recent examples of the risks facing Iranian journalists is the case of Yalda Moaiery, an acclaimed photographerwho was sentenced this month to 15 years in prison in Tehran for documenting the US-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n The Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery, who was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for her work covering the US-Israeli war in Iran. Photograph: Santiago Mejia\/San Francisco Chronicle\/Polaris\/eyevine<\/p>\n Although Moaiery was charged under the espionage law introduced after last year\u2019s 12-day war between Iran and Israel<\/a>, Khazaeli said the new bill signalled a broader effort to regulate and punish contact between Iranians and foreign media and institutions. \u201cIt could move [Iran] to a North Korea kind of situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Moaiery, 44, has spent two decades covering the harsh realities faced by people in Iran, including the nationwide Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022 and the anti-regime protests that led to thousands being killed<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n She came to international prominence in 2019 after criticising Trump\u2019s use of one of her photos<\/a> of a woman at a demonstration near Tehran University, saying Trump\u2019s sanctions were damaging Iranian lives, including those of her friends and family. \u201cThis image shows my people and is for my people, and shouldn\u2019t be abused by these men in Washington,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Now, in a cruel irony, Moaiery said she had been sentenced in absentia for her work covering the US-Israeli war in Iran and accused of media activity deemed to strengthen and aid Israel and the US.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been a critic of Israel and its policies all my life. I am not an Israel supporter, never, ever. And I have always been a critic of American politics. It was like something that you are against, and they want to stick it to you. So it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s super hard,\u201d she told the Guardian.<\/p>\n Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), said the new law on media contact risked turning Iran into an \u201cisolated black hole\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not simply an attack on journalists and citizen journalists; it is an attempt to sever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world by criminalising the free flow of information itself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sends a chilling message and threatens to turn ordinary academic, professional and civic engagement into a potential national security crime,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Casualties in Tehran of an airstrike during the 40-day US-Israeli war on Iran, taken by Yalda Moaiery on 15 March. Photograph: Yalda Moaiery\/Reuters<\/p>\n Moaiery was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2022, but later received an amnesty. This time, however, she fears her sentence could be upheld and she might be jailed.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I am scared,\u201d she said. \u201cThe only thing that I\u2019m worried about is wasting my life if I have to be there for 15 years. When I get out, I\u2019ll be 60 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n She also criticised foreign journalists who travelled to Tehran to cover the funeral in July of the late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI have one word for them: shameful. They just want to say, \u2018We were in Tehran.\u2019 OK, but what did you do? They didn\u2019t go and ask people about the economic situation or talk to the families of the thousands who died in January. Why were you here? To participate in their propaganda?\u201d<\/p>\n