The Italian government said on Friday that a journalist from that country had been detained by Iranian authorities for a week and that the circumstances of her detention remained unclear. Italy's foreign ministry is working with Iranian officials to “clarify the legal situation of Cecilia Salo and verify the conditions of her detention,” the ministry said in a statement.
Sala was in Iran A report for the Italian newspaper Il Foglio, according to an article published by the publication on Friday, when she was detained on December 19. The newspaper's editor called for her immediate release in an article, saying that “journalism is not a crime.”
“Cecilia was in Iran with a regular visa to tell the story of a country she knows and loves, a country where information is stifled by repression, threats, intimidation, violence, detentions, often against journalists themselves,” Il Foglio editor Claudio said. Cheras the article says.
Elena Di Vincenzo/Elena Di Vincenzo Archives/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty
He said the newspaper decided to publish the story about Sal's detention only after receiving “assurances from our diplomatic leaders that informing readers of her arrest will not slow down diplomatic efforts to bring her home.”
As of Friday, the Iranian government had not acknowledged Salah's arrest, and none of the country's official media reported on it. Some Iranian analysts who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity said Salah may have been detained to be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations over two Iranian nationals detained in recent months in Italy for alleged sanctions violations.
U your statementItaly's foreign ministry said Sala was detained by Tehran police while he was “in Iran to provide journalistic services”. The ministry said Italian Ambassador Paolo Amadei made a consular visit “to check the conditions and state of detention” of Salo.
According to Il Foglio, the ministry has not confirmed that she is being held in Iran's notorious Evin prison outside Tehran. It said her family had been “informed of the outcome of the consular visit”, without providing further details.
Regardless of the reason for her detention or the charges against Salah, the Islamic clerics who rule Iran have a well-established track record of silencing dissent.
All mass media in the country are tightly controlled by the government. Street protests against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been called anger over the police killing of a young woman and draconian enforcement of religious edictsin recent years, they have been repeatedly canceled by force.
Salo is the last article published in Il Foglio was a political analysis that looked at the implications for the Khamenei regime the dramatic fall of Iran's close ally in Syriadictator Bashar al-Assad.