Iranian journo gets 30-year ban

2010-06-09 14:09

Tehran - Iran has sentenced award-winning woman journalist Jila Baniyaghoob to jail for one year and banned her from writing for 30 years over post-election unrest, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Baniyaghoob, aged 39, "has been sentenced to one year in jail and banned from journalistic work for 30 years", moderate daily Shargh said.

Baniyaghoob, who had been working for a string of best-selling but now closed reformist newspapers, was arrested on June 20 last year along with her husband and released on bail two months later.

She was charged with propaganda against the Islamic regime over her reports on last year's disputed presidential election and the protests which followed the official results, the Kaleme.com website of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said.

The International Women's Media Foundation gave Baniyaghoob its courage in journalism award in 2009.

Her husband Bahman Ahmadi Amooi, who is an economic journalist, has been jailed for five years on security charges over his articles in reformist newspapers.

Iran cracked down heavily on the opposition, rounding up reformist politicians, journalists and human rights activists after the June 2009 poll which gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term amid fraud allegations.

- SAPA