BOARD OF DIRECTORS
 
Arnold Amber
CBC Television Network News
President
 
Mori Abdolalian
CJFE Journalists in Exile
 
Frank Addario
Lawyer
 
Marlene Benmergui
Freelance
 
Bob Carty
CBC-Radio "This Morning"
 
Roger Holmes
THe Wainwright Star Chronicle
 
Paul Knox
The Globe and Mail
 
Carol Off
CBC Television Network News
 
Susan Reisler
Media Profile
 
Brian MacLeod Rogers
Lawyer
 
Olivia Ward
The Toronto Star
ADVISORY BOARD
 
Peter Desbarats
Maclean-Hunter Chair for Communications Ethics, Ryerson
 
Parker Barss Donham
freelance
 
John Honderich
The Toronto Star
 
John Macfarlane
Toronto Life
 
Joe Matyas
Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild
 
Ann Medina
freelance
 
Rick Moffat
Radio-TV News Directors Assn.
 
Lynda Powless
Native Journalists' Association
 
Lloyd Robertson
CTV News
 
Robert Scully
Télémision Information Inc.
 
Julian Sher
Canadian Association of Journalists
 
Keith Spicer
Institut du Monde anglophone Université de Paris III Sorbonne nouvelle
 
Norman Webster
Montreal
Executive Director
Rod Macdonell

Media Release

CJFE calls on the Iranian Embassy to Canada to respond to allegations of violence by staff against filmmaker

June 21, 2005--Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) decries the alleged beating of a filmmaker at the hands of officials at the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa. On Friday, June 17th, Canadian-Iranian documentary filmmaker Masoud Raouf was reportedly attacked by guards inside the Embassy. The RCMP are currently investigating the allegations.

Raouf went to the Embassy to film Iranians casting absentee ballots in Iran's presidential election inside the Embassy, and others protesting outside the Embassy. He received permission from the RCMP to pass through the protesters and enter the Embassy, and once inside he asked permission at the reception desk to set up his camera.

Raouf was reportedly kept by three Embassy guards from setting up his camera. He claims that he was thrown against a wall and that he was repeatedly punched and kicked by the guards. After leaving the Embassy, he was taken to a hospital.

"Canadians have watched the case of murdered photojournalist Zahra Kazemi unfold in Iran with horror and indignation," said CJFE President Arnold Amber, "but the realisation that freedom of expression could also be attacked so violently in Canada is a great shock."

On Tuesday, June 21st, CJFE wrote to Abbas Assemi, Charge d'Affaires for the Iranian Embassy asking that the Iranian government cooperate fully with the RCMP's current investigation into these allegations, and to ensure that media and all those who visit the Iranian Embassy are not threatened by violence or intimidation.

CJFE is an association of more than 300 journalists, editors, publishers, producers, students and others who work to promote and defend free expression and press freedom in Canada and around the world. For more information, contact Julie Payne at (416) 515-9622 or e-mail: jpayne@cjfe.org