Western journalists among arrested in Iran

TEHRAN, June 24 (UPI) -- Western journalists are among the reporters being detained in Iran following a government crackdown on post-election coverage, news organizations reported.

So far, a Canadian-Iranian reporter for Newsweek, a Greek reporter filing for The Washington Times and several dozen Iranian reporters are among those being detained, The Washington Post reported.

The crackdown began last week when the Iranian government banned foreign journalists from covering live demonstrations protesting the June 12 election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared a landslide winner over his nearest challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who charged the results were rigged.

Some experts told the Post the arrests could be a scare tactic, given the recent events and the response by security forces and pro-government militias.

Maziar Bahari, 41, a documentarian who has covered Iran for Newsweek for nearly 10 years, was arrested Sunday. While the magazine has retained a lawyer for him, no one has been able to determine where he is.

The Washington Times confirmed Tuesday the arrest of Iason Athanasiadis, a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who was covering the election. The Iranian government announced his arrest Tuesday, but friends said Athanasiadis disappeared last week, and the Greek government is pushing for his release.

Twenty-five employees of Kalemeye Sabz, the official newspaper of Mousavi, were arrested Monday for what the government called "illegal activities," watchdog groups reported.

"Journalists have been getting rounded up, a few each day," Mohamed Abdel Dayem, a spokesman for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, told the Post.

The organization reported more than 40 journalists and other media employees have been arrested since the election. Dayem said he believes they are in Evin Prison in Tehran, where Iranian-American reporter Roxana Saberi was held on an espionage conviction before her release in May.