Iran Feature: The Fear in the Corridors of Evin Prison (Theodoulou)

From grim experience, Maziar Bahari knows the fear that is probably gripping eight Iranian journalists who were arrested late last month and taken to Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

Mr Bahari was among the approximately 100 journalists detained in June 2009 during the tumult following president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

The latest crackdown on reporters affiliated with reformist news outlets appears to be aimed at muzzling dissenting or independent voices, and suggests that as Iran gears up for its next presidential election in June, the regime's fears of unrest are escalating.

"My guess is they're all in solitary confinement," said Mr Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist and filmmaker who spent 118 days in Evin, all but 11 of them alone in a small cell.

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Iran Live Coverage: Wishing Away The Economic Problems

See also Iran Analysis: 5 Challenges to an "It's Not That Bad" Iranian Economist
Thursday's Iran Live Coverage: The Supreme Leader's Committee Chooses the "Right Man" for the Presidential Election

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Queuing for Subsidised Chicken, July 20121910 GMT: Research Watch. Kalemeh reports that Iranian universities have been cut off from international research databases such as Elsevier because of non-payment of dues.

1655 GMT: Economic Rumour of the Day. An unnamed MP, cited by economist Mehrdad Emami, has reportedly said that China has twice blocked Iran from withdrawing dollars from its $25 billion of reserves in Chinese banks.

Iran is only allowed to spend the money in yuans to purchase Chinese goods.

1655 GMT: Economic Rumour of the Day. An unnamed MP, cited by economist Mehrdad Emami, has reportedly said that China has twice blocked Iran from withdrawing dollars from its $25 billion of reserves in Chinese banks.

Iran is only allowed to spend the money in yuans to purchase Chinese goods:

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Remember Iran Flashback: 20 June 2009 --- The Death of Neda...And Many Others

Protest and a gunshot victim in Tehran, 20 June 2009

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1915 GMT: A few hours ago, we posted a video of a woman "badly injured" by a gunshot in today's demonstrations. The footage is so graphic that we have moved to the "jump page" after the More... tag.

I have just read more information on The New York Times blog about the incident. The woman was a bystander watching events; according to a doctor who witnessed the event, a paramilitary Basiji deliberately fired at her chest. She died within moments of the shooting.

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The Latest from Iran (20 August): Regime's Cyber-Warriors "We Don't Get No Respect"

US citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, shown with fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who were convicted today of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison (see 1350 GMT)

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1422 GMT: Some People are So Ungrateful Watch. The head of State broadcaster IRIB, Ezzatollah Zarghami, has declared that he said to the "losing" candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi after the 2009 Presidential elections, "You got these 13 million votes only with the help of IRIB."

The official returns, challenged by millions of Iranians in the days after the ballot, showed President Ahmadinejad with 24 million votes v. Mousavi's 13 million.

Zarghami said IRIB, with the permission of the Supreme Leader, had shown campaign ads for Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, even though Karroubi's ads "crossed red lines" by showing "prohibited persons".

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The Latest from Iran (31 March): Mousavi and A Funeral

2100 GMT: A Poster for Sizdeh Bedar. Anticipating the festival of Sizdeh Bedar, when Iranians leave the house and enjoy the outdoors, activists have put out the message on this poster, "Sizdeh Bedar 90 --- Khamenei Must Go":

2030 GMT: Economy Management Watch. Mohammad Taghi Bakhtyari of Parliament's Development Commission has said that breaches by the Government of the 2008/9 budget prove that the Majlis has insufficient control. Bakhtyari claimed that the Government has not paid billions in debts.

Another MP, Ezzatollah Yousefian, has said a fourth of Iran's liquidity is in the hands of "special people".

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The Latest from Iran (10 January): Don't Mention the Election

1935 GMT: The "Subversive" Writers. More on the authors targeted in a new Government campaign against dangerous writers (see 1520 GMT)....

The international media have picked up on the specific case of Nobel Prize winner Paolo Coelho, who has appealed to the Brazilian Government after learning from his publisher of a ban on his books.

It is unclear whether the ban is linked to Coelho's editor, translator, and friend, Dr Arash Hejazi. The doctor attracted the ire of the Iranian Government as a supposed foreign agent after he tried to save the life of Neda Agha Soltan, killed by a gunshot during demonstrations on 20 June 2009.

Indeed, there is a Who's Who of Iranian authors whose place on the blacklist has not attracted notice outside Iran. They include Simin Behbahani, Mahmoud Doulatabadi, Ali Ashraf Darvishian, Sepanlou, Javad Mojabi, Bahman Farzaneh, Abbas Milani, Mashallah Ajudani, Bahram Beyzaie, Ebrahim Golestan, and Reza Ghassemi.

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