It is becoming an all-too-familiar story in far too many parts of the world.

Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh has been sentenced by an Iranian court to ten years in prison for “collaborating with a hostile government.” [Bita Bakhtiari, RFE/RL, December 14, 2024.]

In addition, following the end of his prison term, Valizadeh will be banned for two years from living in Tehran or adjacent provinces, from leaving Iran, and from belonging to any political or social organizations — in effect, remaining a prisoner within the country. [Id.]

A journalist for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Radio Farda for ten years, he resigned in November 2022, but returned to Iran to visit family in early 2024. He was arrested on September 22nd, although he had been assured by Iranian officials that there was no legal bar to his returning to Iran.

Despite condemnation by the U.S. State Department, as well as calls by multiple organizations advocating freedom of the press, Valizadeh continues to be held in Tehran’s Evin Prison under severe restrictions, with only limited access to legal representation or family. [Id.]

If all of this sounds too familiar, it’s no wonder. It is a scenario straight from Vladimir Putin’s textbook on how to rid oneself of the voices of opposition. Not that it’s a new tactic to the Iranian government; they are well known to use Westerners and dual citizens as bait for future prisoner swaps. But Valizadeh is the first U.S. citizen known to have been arrested on false charges since a prisoner swap in September of 2023. [Id.]

And it’s happening elsewhere: Andrey Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik in Belarus, Vladislav Yesypenko in Crimea, and Farid Mehralizada in Azerbaijan are just a few examples.

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In earlier times, the best way for an oppressor to secure control of a city or state was first to take over its communications and transportation infrastructures. It’s not that easy today: communications are no longer centralized in one or two radio or telegraph stations. So what do you do? You silence the broadcasters: the journalists, the bloggers, the Facebookers and YouTubers. You already control the police and the courts, so you simply charge your adversaries with something — anything — that sounds illegal, and you throw them into prison where they have no access to the outside world.

Which is precisely what is happening, almost on a daily basis, in so many parts of the world today — Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Iran, China and Hong Kong, North Korea. The free press is under attack; and the most frightening thought is how long it will be before no journalist will be willing to take the risks involved in speaking the truth.

And that is precisely what the world’s despots are aiming for.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/16/24