Reporters arrests in Iran top rest of the world. Photo credit: Jessica Penny

Iran is one of the worst places in the world for journalists, according to a report issued by the Paris-based press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders yesterday.

The organization named Iran the biggest holder of imprisoned journalists, holding a current total of 42 jailed reporters in the wake of recent election-related clashes between opposition protesters and police.

Tension in Iran has been rising since the controversial election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June. On 4 January, 36 parliamentarians who support the Iranian president suggested a bill where all government opponents be detained and regarded as mohareb, or “enemies of God”, to be executed within a maximum of five days of their arrest. It would also reduce the period allowed for an appeal to five days, instead of the 25 days currently allowed, reported Reporters Without Borders.

That same day, Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeydabadi’s six-year sentence was confirmed in the press; the winner of the World Association of Newspapers’ Golden Pen of Freedom Award in 2009 has been arrested many times in the past for criticizing the government, but most recently in June just after the elections. Another reporter, Bahaman Ahamadi Amoee, was sentenced on 4 January to 34 lashes and seven years and four months in jail. His wife and fellow journalist, Jila Baniyaghoob, was released on a bail of 100 million toman (90,000 euros), the organization reported.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Iran has more than 30 journalists in jail, including at least 11 arrested over the course of three days of demonstrations in late December. Mashallah Shamsolvaezin,  winner of its CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award, was among those arrested, reported CNN.

According to the CPJ’s annual report, however, the Philippines was the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist in 2009 in view of the recent 30 journalists killed in a single massacre; at least 68 journalists were killed around the world in 2009, reported CNN.