"The reason I'm asking [you to sign] is that it is because of those petitions that I am here," Bahari told audience members gathered for the Index on Censorship awards last night. An Iranian-Canadian, he was imprisoned in Tehran from June to October 2009 when he was released on bail.
"I can say these words on this platform because of the support from the international community. I was lucky enough to be writing for a newspaper. My colleagues there went beyond the call of duty and rallied all their contacts in the international media and diplomatic community to call for my release."
Bahari personally thanked IOC, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who all back the Our Society Will Be a Free Society campaign, for their work in securing his release on bail.
According to recent figures from the CPJ, more journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran than have been held by any other country since 1996 when the committee found 78 imprisonments in Turkey.
Iranian authorities are now holding at least 47 journalists in prison, the CPJ says on its website, with at least 26 journalists jailed between December and February alone.
"Being a journalist in Iran is one of the most insecure jobs in one of the most insecure countries run by one of the most insecure governments in the world. The Islamic Republic has made noted it's prime target: more than 100 journalists have been arrested since the contested governmental elections last summer. It's very difficult to be precise with the exact figure in prison, because it's a revolving door," said Bahari.
"In the days of satellite and broadcast television, Facebook, Google and Twitter, the Iranian government wants to change the tide of history. It wants to take Iran back to the era of shortwave radio and terrestrial television - media they can easily control and censor. A wise government would listen to the voices of its own people; the Iranian government shoots the messenger."
"The guards arrested me nine days after the elections. On the first day my interrogator told me, 'There is no difference between journalism and espionage. You gather information and sell it.' (…) For 118 days in 2009 I witnessed an ignorant and confused regime trying to fight its own people."
International news organisations that are banned by the Iranian regime should take action, said Bahari. The European Union this week said it would put pressure on Iran to stop jamming satellite broadcasts from the BBC and other international channels, but the BBC should take legal action against the regime, he said.
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