In its annual report released on December 28, the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that with the execution of Rouhollah Zam on December 12, Iran had executed more journalists in the past 50 years than any other country.

“No journalist had been the victim of this archaic and barbaric form of punishment for the past 30 years,” the report said. “Zam’s execution confirms Iran’s record as a country that has officially put the most journalists to death in the past half-century.” Christophe Deloire, RSF general-secretary, said in October that Iran had executed since 1979 “a score of journalists who were all convicted by unfair courts.”

Zam, editor of the Amad News website and Telegram news channel and a refugee in France, was lured to Iraq by Iranian security forces in September 2019, kidnapped by Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and rendered to Iran. After trial in a closed-door Revolutionary Court, he was sentenced to death for “corruption on earth,” one of Iran’s most serious charges.

The trial was presided over by Abolqasem Salavati, known to Iranian dissidents as the “hanging judge.” Zam was not allowed to choose his defense attorney.

Amnesty International earlier called Zam’s execution a “deadly blow” to freedom of expression. “The use of the death penalty against Rouhollah Zam was strictly prohibited under international law, as he was targeted in connection with his popular news channel AmadNews, which the authorities blamed for the nationwide anti-establishment protests of January 2018,” Amnesty said in its statement of December 12. “His execution…shows the extent of the Iranian authorities’ brutal tactics to instil fear and deter dissent.”

RSF ranked Iran 173 of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index for 2020, with Norway first and North Korea last. RSF reported 16 journalists imprisoned in Iran in 2020, fewer only than 20 in Saudi Arabia, 28 in Egypt, and 76 in China.

RSF said at least 50 journalists were killed worldwide in 2020, down from 53 in 2019, with Mexico the deadliest country with eight killed in connection with their work. Six media workers were killed in Iraq, including Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on the so-called Islamic State group, shot dead in Baghdad in July.