LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has criticized a Tehran court ruling that found three newspaper editors guilty of 鈥渟preading false news and defamation.鈥�
The court refused to disclose details of the cases or sentencing. The three charged worked at the Iranian Students鈥� News Agency (ISNA), the Bultannews news website, and the energy news website NeftEMA.
The CPJ has called for the charges against the journalists to be dropped. 鈥淚f the Iranian government has a credible case against the editors, they should try them open and publicly,鈥� said Sherif Mansour, the CPJ鈥檚 Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.
鈥淐losed door trials of journalists cannot be considered fair or impartial and the Iranian judiciary has a history of holding opaque judicial proceedings that lack credibility.鈥�
ISNA reported that the case is related to a complaint filed against NeftEMA by a subsidiary of Iran鈥檚 Oil Ministry, which accused the website鈥檚 editor in chief of 鈥渟preading misinformation, defamation, and insult.鈥�
The CPJ has documented a significant number of other cases of Iranian journalists being imprisoned for exposing corruption.