In Iran dozens of journalists were arrested in 2006 for criticising the authorities and some were imprisoned in secret in difficult conditions without access to a lawyer, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced in its 2007 annual report.
Since coming to power in August 2005, ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his team of mainly former leaders of the Revolutionary Guards and the intelligence services have cracked down hard on journalists, the organisation said.
It added that in 2006, 38 journalists were arrested and a dozen media-outlets censored in Iran.
Many journalists were also held in secret, without even basic rights, RSF said, adding, Several media-outlets were physically attacked during the year.
Self-censorship is still the best way to survive for many media-outlets. The regimes leaders, social taboos, womens rights and regional ethnic demands are out-of-bounds topics, it said.
