Nooshabeh Amiri, founder and editor of Rooz Online news in talk with Danish reporter at the Copenhagen meeting. Photo: Lotte Dahlmann/IMS

A group of exiled Iranian journalists marked the beginning of a new and vital initiative aimed at improving conditions for Iranian media  during a visit to Denmark this week

The exiled Iranian journalists based around the world were invited to Denmark by the Danish Union of Journalists to meet with Danish and international media organisations. The aim of the meeting was to explore what can be done to improve support for Iranian journalists inside and outside of Iran to ensure that they can continue working as journalists.

More than a show of solidarity

The exiled journalists have all been subjected to persecution by the Iranian authorities because of their profession as journalists. Now living in exile, having been forced to flee their home country, the journalists have embarked on a mission to help improve press freedom and freedom of speech in Iran, which has increasingly worsened since last summer’s elections.

- By taking this initiative to bring together Danish and international media support organisations and representatives of the exiled Iranian media we have attempted to  establish concrete approaches for what can be done to improve the working conditions of Iranian journalists inside and outside Iran, said Mogens Blicher Bjerregaard, Head of the Danish Union of Journalists.

- We want to show more than just solidarity with this initiative, he continues.

- We want to help build an association for journalists in exile. Also, we are taking a serious view on how to help imprisoned journalists in Iran.

The EU must step up humanitarian response

According to Aidan White of the International Federation of Journalists, which is part of the new initiative, Iranian journalists outside Iran are getting themselves organised and as part of this process are asking for help in setting up networks of support.

- Many of the victimised reporters in Iran are ordinary journalists, not well-known. And importantly, there is also a need for a humanitarian support system for families of those victimised.

Adian White also stresses that the EU should have a more humanitarian response to fleeing Iranian journalists who lands on its doorstep and this is something which will be taken up with the EU in Brussels by the organisations behind the initiative. Often the Iranian journalists fleeing from abuse are seriously demoralised by the wall of difficulties facing them when they arrive in the EU.   

- The EU must relax the rules that stop journalists fleeing from Iran from getting asylum. New procedures should be introduced that reflect where people come from. When you have fled Iran and you are knocking on the door of the EU for help, there is usually a very good reason to take the cry for help seriously, says Aidan White.

The meeting was organised by the Danish Union of Journalists in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, Danish Newspapers’ Publishers Association, World Association of Newspapers and International Media Support (IMS).