This week we heard the good news that journalist Farhad Ghorbanpour was released after spending 28 days in Evin Prison, 6 of which were in solitary confinement, and the posting a 500 million Rial [about 60,000 USD] bail for his release. Then I realized the accusation against him was acting against national security because of his writing contributions to “Rooz.” Rooz is an electronic publication available on the Internet and works in accordance with complete professional standards.

Since I work with the electronic newspaper Rooz, I hope to receive a portion of my income by receiving payments from Rooz for my interviews. Therefore, based on Mr. charges raised against Mr Ghorbanpour, I too am guilty. It is not unlikely for me to be arrested for it, because I work with Rooz. Since, in my many years of writing for different newspapers, I have never received an official warning for my writings, which are sometimes direct and critical, I feel it is necessary, based on professional requirements, for me to address the responsible officials and bring up two issues that are not clear to me.

I, as an individual whose profession is journalism, and who have not done anything other than journalism in the past decade, have to know, for my own financial budgeting, when it is a crime to work for a publication and when it is not. As far as I know, the electronic newspaper Rooz has not been convicted in any court and there is no legal evidence suggesting that it is a crime to work for it.

Moreover, we still lack a list and definition of “virtual crimes.” Since Rooz is an electronic newspaper that is published in the virtual world, Iranian courts in essence lack the authority to initiate any cases against it, unless the case is brought up by a private party.

From a professional point of view, what attracts me to working with Rooz, is the positive experience I have had working with Hossein Bastani in domestic newspapers. Also, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to work with publications inside the country because of their shortcoming in paying salaries on time.

Occasionally, I conduct interviews with senior officials in the country’s communications and IT industries and send it to Rooz. Now, if my work with Rooz, which consists of conducting professional interviews with officials who work for the government, is criminal work, then I have problems making ends meet.

My information tells me that the managers of Rooz are not and have not been anti-regime, and have defended the country during many crises and catastrophes, particularly threats of foreign intervention. Now, if the Ministry of Culture has filtered this website, as it has filtered domestic news websites Baztab and ILNA, that is due to the officials’ personal preference, and not any legal process. If working for Rooz is acting against national security based on certain evidence and criteria, then that evidence and criteria must be publicly announced.

I ask officials to do a favor to those who conduct professional work for Rooz and clarify the situation. That way, we can prevent breaking any laws and creating problems for interrogators and ourselves.