The Prague Post Online: News: Facing prison

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July 7th, 2008

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Facing prison

Iranian court sentences radio journalist Parnaz Azima to a year behind bars

By Kimberly Hiss
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 12th, 2008 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST

Radio Farda broadcaster Parnaz Azima, a U.S. and Iranian citizen, was convicted of 'spreading anti-state propaganda.' enlarge

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST

Azima - whom officials initially persecuted for her reporting on human rights - says the state of press freedom in Iran is worsening, and that a change in government could help. enlarge

Press freedom in Iran

Many Iranian journalists - a number of whom are also with Radio Farda - have suffered circumstances similar to or harsher than those Parnaz Azima has experienced. As the state of press freedom in the country deteriorates, Iran fell to a ranking of 166 out of 169 in the Reporters Without Borders 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index. According to the organization's 2008 Annual Report on Iran:
More than 50 journalists were jailed in Iran in 2007, and ten of them remained there at year's end.
In November, the Supreme Court confirmed a death sentence against a freelance journalist who is believed to have been arrested because of contacts with U.S.-funded radio stations Voice of America and Radio Farda
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance ordered at least four publications to permanently shut down last year
Iran has the largest number of 'threatened cyber-dissidents' in the Middle East, and shuts down dozens of Web sites annually
The majority of journalists jailed in Tehran are held in a prison section controlled by the intelligence services, where they have limited medical care and are frequently put in solitary confinement

Source: Reporters Without Borders

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST

Radio Farda broadcaster Parnaz Azima could very well face a tough choice in the near future. After being convicted by an Iranian court of “spreading anti-state propaganda,” she was notified March 1 that she had been sentenced to one year in prison. If current appeal proceedings fail, Azima will have to decide between serving the sentence or giving up the deed to her mother’s Tehran home, which had previously been offered as bail.

Azima, a dual U.S. and Iranian citizen, has worked for 10 years as a Prague-based correspondent with Radio Farda, a Persian-language broadcast service to Iran produced by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and funded by the U.S. Congress.

Circumstances leading to Azima’s sentencing began in January 2007, when she traveled to Iran to visit her ailing mother, and her passport was seized at the airport in Tehran. The document had also been confiscated in 2006, leading to interrogations and charges that were dropped before it was returned.

This time, however, months of attempts to retrieve her passport failed, making Azima a virtual prisoner in Iran. In May, she found herself facing criminal charges of spreading propaganda through her work with Radio Farda, and was given five days to produce $440,000 in bail. When her lawyer offered the sum in the form of a deed to her mother’s Tehran home, officials still refused to return the passport, citing technicalities.

After eight months of what she calls “endless waiting,” Azima was allowed to leave Iran in September, but the charges against her remained.

Back in Prague, Azima’s wait for resolution continued until March, when her lawyer learned that Tehran’s 13th Revolutionary Court had found her guilty Feb. 25 of “spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic” (charges of owning a satellite dish and earning illegitimate income were dropped), and handed down the one-year prison sentence.

While waiting for the outcome of the appeal, Azima sat down with The Prague Post at RFE/RL’s Prague headquarters to talk about her time in Iran, the impact of her sentencing and her thoughts on the tough choice ahead.

The Prague Post: When you entered Iran in January 2007, did you expect that something like this could happen?

Parnaz Azima: Oh, yes. Usually when you go there you expect something will happen. Even ordinary Iranians living outside of Iran say they’re nervous going there and during their stay, and when they’re back in the air they breathe a sigh of relief that nothing went wrong. Logically I was thinking nothing should happen this time because the year before they had closed my case. And nothing had changed since then — I was the same person, doing the same job.

TPP: What reason did they give for confiscating your passport?

PA: At the airport, they said they were looking for a CD, and I said, “Well, I have nothing like that.” They searched my luggage and of course there was no CD. I asked if they were talking about a movie or a music CD, and they said, “No, you know better, this is information.”

When they confiscated my passport, they gave me a receipt and set a place and date for me to pick it up. When I went there, it was a building that belongs to the Intelligence Ministry, and [an official] said I had to collaborate with them. I said I wouldn’t, and I also said I didn’t want to go through any interrogation this time because my mother is ill and I have to nurse her.

This time, I wasn’t even interrogated. Actually, it was me asking them, “What are you going to do with me? Why don’t you give me back my passport?”

TPP: Are you aware of any broadcast content in particular that the Iranian government objected to, or was it in general your function as a correspondent?

PA: Both. The previous year, when I was under interrogation, they insisted it was the content — it was about the issues I was touching upon. They didn’t like me concentrating on human rights issues, especially women’s rights, and then also, for example, [the rights of] students, workers and certain sects, and issues of the Kurdish people. They were very sensitive about these things.

This time, the main problem was Radio Farda itself. They said Radio Farda is following a plot to overthrow the Islamic government. They called it a soft overthrow like those events that happened in ex-Soviet republics.

TPP: Was this prison sentence surprising to you?

PA: Yes, because we didn’t expect such a tough decision. My lawyer especially had been very optimistic. He was thinking that at most they would give me a [lesser] sentence, but not this. One year is very long. But my lawyer will appeal to a higher court, and we’ll see what happens. If they approve this sentence in the higher court, I will be summoned — I don’t know when — to go somewhere to serve one year in prison. If I don’t go, they will put the house up for sale. Then they get the money from the house, and that’s that.

TPP: How does this court decision influence you professionally?

PA: Well, professionally it doesn’t, really. They [the Iranian government] were advising me to concentrate on international or cultural events instead of human rights, but of course I won’t do that. I also didn’t do that last time and that’s why they were angry — they advised me not to touch this subject, but I wouldn’t accept that.

TPP: And personally?

PA: Well, it makes you nervous, makes you lose your concentration, because you don’t know what to do; there are lots of dilemmas in front of you. For example, should I go back to Iran to serve the sentence? If not, my mother’s house is at risk. Or, if I don’t go, what happens to my mother’s house, and what happens to her? These things always fill your mind, without you even being conscious of it. For example, last night I had another nightmare that for some reason I found myself in Iran and I didn’t know what to do.

But my mother is very strong. I’m sure she’s also nervous, but she says, “You know life is worth much more than a house, so don’t think about this, and I’m sure everything will end well.”

TPP: Regarding press freedom in Iran, are you hopeful at all about it?

PA: No. I think it’s getting tougher and tougher right now. But maybe with a change in the government or maybe in two years something will happen. For now, I think it’s getting worse. And it’s not only for journalists, but also other writers, movies, films, music — all stages of culture or freedom of expression.

Kimberly Hiss can be reached at news@praguepost.com

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