United States: From Smear Campaigns To Bomb Threats, Negar Mortazavi Faces Relentless Attacks
Location: United States, Chicago
Date: October 21, 2022
Political analyst and journalist Negar Mortazavi has been the target of a bomb threat while being hosted as a panelist by the University of Chicago. The Coalition For Women In Journalism vehemently condemns the ongoing alarming threats faced by Negar Mortazavi.
Iranian-American journalist, Negar Mortazavi, was scheduled to discuss the recent Iranian uprising caused by the death of 22-year-old, Mahsa Amini, in custody of Iran’s morality police for her alleged violation of the strict dress code enforced on women. The panel was planned to take place on campus at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. Prior to the discussion, titled “Taking it to the Streets: The Power of Iranian Women Now,” according to the University of Chicago they received several emails and phone calls asking for cancellation of Mortazavi's speech. She was maliciously accused of having ties to the Iranian government due to her connection with NIAC as the director of Persian & New Media in early 2014. As a result, on Tuesday, the discussion was held online in lieu of in-person.
Mortazavi, an exiled journalist, has been the target of relentless online smear campaigns and threats on social media for over a decade now. She has been facing waves of sexist, misogynistic online attacks and death threats for her journalistic activities. The journalist is based in Iranian affairs and US-Iran relations. She is also a frequent media analyst on Iran and US foreign policy. Forced into exile in 2009 over her work on the Iranian green movement for the US-funded newsroom, Voice of America (VOA), Mortazavi became a target of online trolls. With an open case against her, she is unable to return to her homeland, because of the high risk of being prosecuted in Iran.
Recently, the harassment has manifested into the physical world with the bomb threat scare at the University of Chicago. Sadly, she is not the only one facing such accusations and harassment. Many women journalists from the diaspora are under constant threat for vocalizing their support for the current protests at the forefront of which are predominantly women.
“But at the core of this is essentially a feminist uprising, a women’s uprising against years of systemic oppression, discrimination, discriminatory laws against women and the violent enforcement of these laws,” she said.
Women journalists in Iran face perpetual scrutiny and life-threatening intimidation. Since August 2019, Iran has become the top jailer of women journalists. The Coalition For Women In Journalism is alarmed and disturbed by the online harassment faced by Negar Mortazavi and other women journalists for simply trying to do their jobs. We view the bomb threat as yet another tactic of intimidation to silence free press, the only lifeline the general public has to information. We urge the U.S authorities to investigate the bomb threats against Negar Mortazavi.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.