International press body calls on Iran to release detained journalists

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Thursday called on the Iranian government to immediately release all journalists who are being detained in the country. The call came after a meeting in Brussels between the IFJ general secretary, Beth Costa, and Leila Liaghat, the wife of imprisoned Iranian journalist Alireza Rajaei. Rajaei, who is also a board member of the Association of Iranian Journalists (AoIJ), has been in detention for more than 30 months without charge or access to due legal process. He was arrested in May 2011, a few weeks after he was sacked from his job at National Iranian Radio and Television without receiving payments, said an IFJ statement. According to Rajabali Mazrooei, the chairman of AoIJ, who also attended the meeting, there are at least ten other journalists in similar situations and have been detained for years without charge. Costa called on the Iranian government "to take the immediate action required to put an end to the tragedy facing the journalists and their families." The Brussels-based IFJ represents more than 600 000 journalists in 134 countries.