Radio Free Europe journalist accuses Iran of intimidation

International Herald Tribune ^ | March 5, 2008

[nuconvert]

Radio Free Europe journalist accuses Iran of intimidation

March 5, 2008

PARIS: An Iranian-American radio journalist who is facing a yearlong prison term for her broadcasts to Iran through Radio Free Europe said Wednesday that Iran had threatened to seize her 95-year-old mother's home in Tehran if she did not return to serve a sentence for propaganda.

The journalist, Parnaz Azima, 59, who works for the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, said her lawyer in Iran was appealing her conviction Saturday by Tehran's 13th Revolutionary Court for spreading propaganda and working for the "anti-revolutionary" Radio Farda, the Persian-language station of Radio Free Europe.

Azima was one of four Iranian-Americans accused of endangering national security during visits to Iran in 2007. Azima, who had returned to care for her ailing mother, said she was met by two security officials at the airport in Tehran who confiscated her passport. It was the second time that she had been detained about her broadcast work.

"The interrogation was about everything, about my own life," she said. "What was I doing before leaving Iran 25 years ago. What I was doing in my life before coming to Radio Free Europe. And then about what was I doing in Radio Free Europe. And they were always insisting that if I cooperated with them, everything would be closed."

She noted that officials particularly urged her to avoid covering sensitive issues like human rights.

After Azima's conviction was announced, the U.S. State Department condemned the accusations as "baseless." Azima has drawn support from Reporters Without Borders, the media rights group, which views measures against her and other reporters as a wider attempt to intimidate journalists, writers, scholars and activists in Iran.

[Cindy]

http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html

[yldstrk]

Ya shoulda thought of that, hon....