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Washington, 28 November (IranVNC)—The press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders [RSF] yesterday denounced the recent arrest of Kurdish-Iranian journalist, Bahman Tutunchi, and called for his immediate release.

Tutunchi, a former contributor to the banned weekly Kereftu, was arrested on 18 November in Sanandaj, the capital city of Iran’s Kurdistan Province, AFP reported. The charges against him have not yet been announced.

“Tutunchi’s arrest brings the number of Kurdish journalists currently detained in Iran to five,” RSF wrote in a statement, describing the detention of the individuals as “persecution”, noting that the publications for which the journalists wrote had all been banned prior to their arrests.

RSF also voiced concern over the stabbing on 24 November of journalist Mohammad Khaleghi, in the city of Takab in Iran’s northwestern West Azarbayjan Province.

Khaleghi, who writes for the Asr-e Iran news website, was attacked by two men on a motorcycle armed with a knife and a box-cutter, RSF reports.

Prior to the attack, the governor of Takab had demanded Khaleghi’s dismissal from his job, and accused him of being “morally incompetent” after he published a story on protests by residents of Takab against problems with the distribution of natural gas.

In the story, Khaleghi had questioned the way the government was managing the issue.

RSF has in the past described Iran as the “Middle Eas... >>>