PARIS, June 19: Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) is protesting the arrest on June 16 of Ensafali Hedayat of “Salam”, who was the sixth journalist to be detained in a space of three days against a backdrop of student protests in Iran.

“How far does the Iranian government intend to go?” asks RSF secretary-general Robert Menard, in a plea to Tehran to stop a practice that in recent months has turned Iran into “the Middle East’s largest prison for journalists.”

Ensafali Hedayat’s detention was preceded on June 15 by the arrests of Mohsen Sazgara, editor of the (closed) reformist daily Jameh and creator of the news website www.alliran.net, and Amin Bozorgian, editor of Golestan-e-Iran.

The first three journalists to be detained, on June 14, were Taghi Rahmani of the weekly Omid-e-Zangan, Reza Alijani, editor of the Iran-e-Farda, and Hoda Saber, a member of Iran-i-Farda’s editorial staff.