A Statement by CFD: Communications For Development expresses its extreme concern at a recent incident involving our Iranian colleagues at Mehrabad Airport, Tehran, in the early hours of 20 November 2006.
All those involved were participants at a journalism training seminar in the Netherlands, organised in full cooperation with the Iranian Journalists Association and CFD, a non-profit media development group based in Utrecht.
On return to Iran our colleagues were unjustifiably interrogated for three hours or more and their personal property confiscated. In many cases officials asked questions of a personal nature that had no possible connection to any serious enquiry.
We are concerned that some officials may be abusing their powers by behaving in an insulting, unprofessional and unjustifiable manner to professional journalists who are doing no more than exercising their right to express their opinion on the international stage.
At a time when Iran is taking an ever more significant place in the global arena, it is not the place of misinformed officials to pre-judge the participation of Iranian journalists in international events.
We hope and expect that the confiscated property of the journalists has already been returned, that there will be no further interrogations, as threatened, and that none of the journalists shall be penalized for participation in our programme.
And we hope and expect that there will be no further official obstacles to Iranian journalists who seek to share their expertise and experience with their friends and colleagues worldwide.
Communications For Development
20 November, 2006.
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