Issa Saharkhiz, a veteran Iranian journalist and member of Iran’s Association for Defense of Press Freedom was arrested yesterday in front of his house after being first beaten up, according to his son.

Mehdi Saharkhiz, the journalist’s son made the announcement last night on Facebook and Twitter e-social networks.  Independent journalists have confirmed the report of the arrst. Issa Saharkhiz began his career as a journalist at the Islamic Republic News Agency and was soon promoted to head the Domestic Press division at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance during pro-reformist Mohammad Khatami’s first term in office, when Ahmad Bourghani served as the ministry’s under-secretary in press affairs.

That era, according to many journalists and press experts, is referred to as the “Press Spring” in Iran, when new publications flourished.  That spring, did not last long and autumn set in with the suspension and ban of several publications and the detention of many journalists.  Ahmad Bourghani and Issa Saharkhiz both resigned in protest.  Afterward, Saharkhiz resumed his writing and published analysis of social and political evens in several reformist dailies.  His directness and clarity which characterized his writing style and interviews sometimes worried his colleagues, who encouraged him to tone his writing down and to be more conservative. But he did not. Not even with his recent writings that he published on the Rooz website.  Saharkhiz also is among the pioneers of freedom of the press in Iran, awarding an annual prize to a journalist who has paid a price for freedom of speech in Iran.  During the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Saharkhiz was a regular visitor to the fronts, as a volunteer Bassiji.