Weary of crackdown, Iran’s regime takes on citizen journalists

LONDON — Covering the anti-regime protests in Iran has taken a heavy toll on journalists across the country, as the Islamic Republic carries out a ruthless crackdown.

Since protests erupted in September when Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody after being arrested for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women, Iranian authorities have detained, injured and killed hundreds of protesters in an effort to quell the demonstrations. They also targeted journalists and free flow of information.

Globally, Iran ranks third among the worst countries for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders. Some Iranian journalists told ABC News that internet disruptions and other restrictions have made it extremely difficult to access information and sources. They said they had received death threats and feared their online activity was being tracked, which could put them and their sources at risk.

“Sometimes I’m threatened [on social media that] I will be killed in a fake accident or even in acid attacks by unknown agents,” said an Iranian reporter, whom ABC News calls Sahar rather than his real name for security reasons.

The dangers of being a journalist in Iran

According to Journalists Protection Committee, at least 46 members of the press have been arrested since the beginning of the protest movement, including at least two – Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi – accused of espionage by the Iranian authorities. Espionage is a serious crime under Iranian law, with penalties ranging from jail to execution.

Sahar told ABC News that Hamedi and Mohammadi are his “friends and colleagues”.

“We’re so worried, we can’t sleep,” she said.

Hamedi and Mohammadi were arrested separately after reporting Amini’s death for Iranian newspapers.

“It’s hard to witness all the stories going on around you without even being able to take a picture because you know you’d be beaten and arrested immediately,” she tearfully told ABC News, adding that she felt “useless”.

That’s why Sahar relies on social media, but even there she faces online threats, misinformation and surveillance.

“The Islamic Republic has a large ‘cyber army’ that constantly intimidates independent journalists and spreads disinformation to target their credibility,” she said.

Citizen journalists and the fight against disinformation

With the restrictions imposed on the press, citizen journalists – members of the public who are not professional journalists but who disseminate information online – as well as activists abroad have taken the lead in media coverage of the protests. But they face a “massive” amount of misinformation when trying to verify the news, according to Masoud Kazemi, an Iranian dissident journalist who spent years behind bars for his work and now lives in exile.

“Nothing sets the stage for misinformation more than restricting the internet and damaging the credibility of journalists,” Kazemi told ABC News.

“[Iranian] the intelligence services have controlled newsrooms for 10 years by assigning people close to the regime to management and editorial positions,” he added. “A lot of people have lost faith in their content over the years.

Many Iranians have thus turned to social networks for information, which has prompted the regime to “saturate them with disinformation”, according to Kazemi.

“It’s a real headache to verify what we get from social media,” he said. “Trust in the media and the credibility of journalism are at stake.”

Internet restrictions and monitoring

Mahsa Alimardani, a senior researcher for the international human rights group Article 19, told ABC News that the Iranian regime uses different strategies to ‘block’ people’s internet access and to ‘track’ their connections. and their movements whenever they have access to them. That’s why “having access to a secure VPN is of utmost importance,” she said.

In addition to blocking access to social media apps, including Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram, one of the ways the regime disrupts the flow of information is by limiting access to Google Play, which many Iranians use to download VPNs, according to Alimardani. .

With access to Google Play restricted, she said Iranians could unknowingly download regime-developed VPNs to steal user information. Even some local food delivery apps have been known to share the locations of protesters with authorities, according to Alimardani.

An Iranian protester, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, told ABC News that she recently received a threatening message on social media saying she could be ‘prosecuted’ if she continues to post content. against the “security of the country”.

Alimardani said the regime’s strategies “vary” by region. For example, Iranian authorities have implemented a nationwide nightly “curfew” on mobile connectivity, while some cities with mass protests are under a “complete internet blackout”, according to Alimardani.

“It significantly delays the compilation, verification and distribution of information about the victims of these protests,” she told ABC News, adding that it “then hinders the information cycle.”

Citizen journalists are particularly at risk, Alimardani said, as they often send videos of protests either to foreign-based Farsi-language television channels or to social media accounts of 1500tasvir and Vahid online, who aggregate and distribute the material. This online activity could be tracked by the scheme.

“I am aware of the risks I am taking. I know that in the eyes of the regime I am a ‘spy,'” an Iranian protester, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, told ABC News. “But I want the world to hear the voice of our revolution. I want the world to stop recognizing a regime that kills its own innocent people.”

ABC News’ Riley Farrell and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.