CPJ urges Iran to release NHK bureau chief
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Iran to immediately release Shinnosuke Kawashima, the Tehran bureau chief of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, and to return confiscated property.
CPJ said Kawashima was arrested on Jan. 20 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and initially held at a detention facility in northern Tehran before being transferred to Evin Prison on Feb. 23, citing a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The group said the passport and personal devices of an NHK videographer were also confiscated, and that another staff member left Iran after repeated summonses. CPJ’s regional director Sara Qudah said the arrest and pressure on staff reflected “a deliberate effort” to silence independent reporting.
