Sina Motalebi (; born 21 April 1973) is an Iranian journalist based in

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. He was the Editor of ZigZag magazine, a website based on the content of journalists and citizen's contributions following their distance journalism training course provided by the

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Career

He started his career in 1991 as a film critic and later began to write political and cultural columns and commentary for several reformist newspapers. He joined the Persian Section of

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as a multimedia producer in 2004. He graduated from

Tehran University The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

, Faculty of Law and Political Science. After most of the Iranian reformist publications were banned by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

, Sina started blogging in his personal

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, Webgard (also known as Rooznegar). On 20 April 2003, he was arrested by the intelligence division of law enforcement because of his writings in his weblog and newspapers and his interviews with foreign media. He was detained for 23 days in solitary confinement in a secret detention center before he was released on bail. In December 2003, Sina left the country for the Netherlands, where he sought asylum. He recalled his experiences in his weblog as well as a joint press conference held by

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and

Reporters sans frontières Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as founded on the beli ...

(in June 2004). The judiciary responded by arresting his father, Saeed Motalebi. It charged him with "assisting the escape of an accused person," an apparent reference to his son's departure from Iran, even though Sina Motalebi left Iran legally. Saeed Motalebi was detained for ten days in a secret detention center before being released. Pedram Moallemian, an Iranian blogger and activist, campaigned for his release during his detention.Iranian journalist faces manslaughter charge
Journalism.co.uk, 9 May 2003.

Awards and honors

*1997 – The First Prize at the National Press Festival, Tehran *2005 – Hellman/Hammett Grant by

References

Sources

Sina Motalebi's father arrested
–

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Motallebi, Sina 1973 births Living people Iranian journalists Iranian bloggers Iranian emigrants to the United Kingdom BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World Service people Journalists from Tehran University of Tehran alumni Online journalists