Keyvan Mehregan, who was detained in the wave of journalist arrests, has been released and Kaleme reports that Mehregan was released from Evin Prison on Saturday February 23.
Mehregan, who has worked with top reformist newspapers like Etemad and Shargh, has been arrested four times in the past four years.
Starting on January 30, Iranian authorities began a campaign of arresting reformist journalists and later announced that they are being investigated for possible connections to an anti-regime network of media activists that, according to the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, is being controlled by the BBC.
BBC has dismissed the accusation, denying any connection with the detainees.
The crackdown on journalists has been challenged by Iranian conservative MP Ali Motahari, who spoke out against the “sense of insecurity in the press”, adding that such an atmosphere is not in the country’s best interests, especially in the months leading up to the presidential election in June.
Motahari announced: “A simple summons would have been sufficient to carry out this investigation, and there was no need for this sort of arrests.” Challenging the allegation that these reporters are passing on information to the BBC, he asked: “What could these reporters tell BBC that is not already accessible to them?”
