Paris, November 7, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Iranian authorities to immediately release editor and economist Parviz Sedaghat and halt their escalating campaign against journalists, academics, and writers commenting on social and economic injustices.
According to multiple reports, including Tehran-based outlet Rouydad24 and the Netherland-based Radio Zamaneh, Sedaghat, editor-in-chief of Naghde Eqtesad Siyasi (Political Economy Critique), an independent platform that publishes critical essays on the economy and governance in Iran, was arrested on November 3 alongside several of his colleagues and contributors. His arrest is part of what rights groups say is a broader campaign of arrests meant to stifle public debate in the wake of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.
“Iran’s imprisonment of Parviz Sedaghat and his colleagues represents yet another attempt to criminalize critical thought and independent journalism,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Authorities must release all journalists and researchers detained for their writings and end the escalating repression against voices calling for transparency and justice.”
Those detained alongside Sedaghat, previously the editor-in-chief of the Tehran-based Sarmayeh newspaper, include feminist writer and translator Shirin Karimi and political sociologist and critic Mahsa Asadollanejad.
Security forces also raided the home of researcher and commentator Heyman Rahimi, seizing his devices and summoning him for questioning, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Separately, prominent columnist, and leftist political analyst, Mohammad Maljoo, was summoned for interrogation, Radio Farda reported.
Years of poor governance, soaring inflation, and entrenched corruption have widened the gap between ordinary Iranians and the powerful clerical and security elite, fuelling widespread frustration. The reinstatement of U.N. sanctions in September, after the collapse of nuclear negotiations, has only intensified the country’s economic troubles.
In a July article, Sedeghat wrote that the “Iranian economy has been trapped in a structural blockage” and described a growing “distance between the majority of society and the ideology of the ruling minority”. He warned that without fundamental changes to Iran’s governance system, the country would be pushed “towards a comprehensive and systematic collapse.”
No official charges against Sedeghat have been announced. Colleagues told CPJ he has not been heard from since his detention and is believed to have been transferred to Tehran’s Evin Prison, which houses the country’s most prominent political prisoners.
CPJ emailed the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York for comment, but did not receive a response.