Iran arrested or killed at least 860 journalists between 1979 and 2009 – report

The NGO Reporters Without Borders says it has examined 1.7 million records leaked from Iran by whistle blowers and discovered that at least 860 journalists had been arrested, imprisoned or executed in the 30 years that followed the 1979 Iranian revolution, Reuters reports today.

The report is made public in a press conference today in Paris.

The leaked documents also show mass-arrests of minorities and opponents of the regime, the group says.

“After months of detailed research work on the file’s entries, RSF [Reporters Without Borders’ French acronym] is in a position to say that at least 860 journalists and citizen-journalists were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases executed by the Iranian regime between 1979 and 2009, the period on which RSF focused its research,” the group says.