Washington——

The acting director of Voice of America has condemned Iran’s absence from convicting a VOA Persian journalist for spreading anti-government propaganda.

The convictions came to light last week when hacker group Edaalat Ali published Iranian judicial documents showing Tehran’s Revolutionary Court had convicted dozens of Persian journalists from Voice of America and other Western news outlets in a secret trial in 2022. judgment.

“These actions by Iran are typical of a regime that has little regard for human rights or the rule of law,” VOA Acting Director John Lippman said in a statement on Tuesday. “They are a thinly veiled attempt to prevent the free flow of information into Iran. They are also This is evidence of VOA Persian’s success in making an impact on issues such as women’s rights, public expression and the importance of being front and center in Iran’s free society. VOA stands by our journalists and their reporting.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to an email sent by VOA on Tuesday requesting comment on Lippmann’s statement.

Leaked Iranian court documents that VOA Persian reviewed and deemed credible reveal that 11 VOA Persian journalists and former VOA Persian director Setareh Derakhsheh Sieg were convicted of propaganda against the Iranian government. The men were sentenced to unspecified prison terms and their sentences were sent to the executive branch of Iran’s prosecutor’s office in charge of media and cultural affairs, the document said.

Lippman said VOA is “reviewing ways to enhance the safety of those named and their families, and we will work with external agencies and stakeholders to do this.”

The 11 convicted VOA Persian journalists include four women: Hamideh Aramideh, Sara Dehghan, Fahimeh Khezr Heidari and Mahtab Vahidi Rad; and seven men: Mahdi Aghazamani, Mohammad Boghrati, Roozbeh Bolhari, Mehdi Fallahati, Arian Risbaf, Arash Sigarchi and Payam Yazdian.

Sigazi, VOA’s Persian editor in chief, who is based in Washington, said on this week’s VOA Flashpoint Iran podcast that he was saddened to learn of the convictions.

“We are not committing any crime here. We try to be good citizens and obey the law [where we work]. The Iranian authorities try to label us political, but our work as journalists is not a crime even under the laws of the Islamic Republic,” Sigazi said.

Sigazi served nearly three years in an Iranian prison for serving as editor-in-chief of an Iranian state-sanctioned newspaper before fleeing the country and immigrating to the United States before his release. Asked whether the latest conviction would affect his job at VOA’s Persian service, he said it would not.

“This is not the first time for me. Even so, as journalists we strive to be fair and balanced [news]. It won’t have any impact on us because we are just doing our job,” Sigach said.

The hacked documents also list more than 30 other Persian diaspora journalists working for Western news outlets who have also been convicted of propaganda crimes. They include journalists from VOA sister network Radio Farda, BBC Persian, Iran International and Manoto.

The National Union of Journalists, a union of British and Irish journalists, called on the international community to take action against Iran in response to the revelations.

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said in a statement on February 22: “We will be in touch again [British] Government and the United Nations, and we ask the wider international community to speak out against this shameless act of weaponizing journalists. “

She added: “What is particularly worrying is that [Iranian] Interpol’s Red Notice system can restrict the movement of these journalists as they travel abroad for work or to meet family members in third countries.We will continue to work with the BBC and the International Federation of Journalists to [Britain] and other governments confronting Iran over its abuse of journalists, including death threats. ”