An Iranian journalist was arrested in Tehran on Monday after visiting a hospital in the capital to check the condition of a young girl who had fainted on the subway under unclear circumstances the day before, a local report said Media report.
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“Maryam Lotfi, a journalist with Shargh newspaper, has been arrested,” the daily said on its website on Monday evening, without giving the reasons for the arrest.
According to the Tehran-based media outlet, Ms. Lotfi went to Fajr Hospital in the capital on Sunday “to make a report on the condition of a young girl who fainted in the subway.”
According to Iran’s official Irna news agency, “a 16-year-old student” fainted due to a “drop in blood pressure” while trying to get on the subway.
Following “certain rumors about subway agents’ confrontation” with the student, Tehran Metro General Director Masood Dorosti denied any “verbal or physical conflict” between the teenager “and passengers or executives” at the time worked.
These claims “are false” and “video surveillance images from the subway” allow us to “refute” them, he added in an interview with Irna.
More than 90 Iranian journalists have been harassed by authorities since demonstrations sparked by the detention death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, local media reported in August.
Iran has been rocked for several months by demonstrations sparked by the death of this young Iranian Kurdish woman, who was arrested by moral police who accused her of violating the strict dress code for women.
Among them are Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, two journalists who covered the Mahsa Amini affair, detained since September last year and tried in Tehran, particularly on charges of conspiring against national security.