subprime mortgage crisis. his latest is "the big short." he also is the author of other books. one was the basis for the movie "the blind side) starring sandra bullock. that is sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. all this month, see the wonders of our studentcam video documentary competition. .

tonight. this is the inaugural event of the truth teller series. i am more than happy to have the i am more than happy to have the our guest speaking to us tonight -- our guest speaking ato us tonight. we are the only age demographic based committee at the club representing everyone from the ages of 18 to 35, including our students members. anyone who is in journalism school is more than welcome to join. and thank you for coming. this is a more than exciting event. i am happy to be organizing this, it is something i have wanted to see done since i was in journalism school.

thank you. to introduce our guest i. >> we hope we can raise awareness where press freedom is threatened. you might know it now but iran is at a very bad point at its history. reporters are fleeing the country. some of them are afraid that some friends or the families have been found by the government. they are deleting facebook from files. can you imagine being forced to delete your facebook profile because your friends are at stake? it is a critical moment right

now. i am honored that hasan is there. in iran, he is a well-known photographer. he has done a lot of things for press freedom. reporters without borders is one of the soul organizations talking about the situation of press freedom in iran day-by- day since january 1, 2010. we are updating our website with the latest news. you might have heard that with the new year coming, on march 21, some of the reporters were [unintelligible] you still have more than 100 of them in jail, reporters and blogers, a because,nd bl --

reporters and bloggers. it is not that. it is saying what is going on in the country. it is important. we will make sure that your friends in iran will get what you are saying tonight. we know that the message is getting there and we know that the message is getting out because our researchers are in contact with them. we still get the message out. that is why we're able to inform you of the numbers of prisoners there and the situation in the country. newspapers are being closed. journalists are being harassed every day. they're being jailed, they are

being threatened, their families are threatened. it is hard to figure out what is going on. thanks to hasan, will have an overview of the situation. thank you very much. >> thank you very much to coming here and listening to an iranian journalist's situation and the issues which happened in the past 10 months. i am a representative of colleagues who cannot vote in iran freely and who cannot carry cameras. i am a photographer. i will try to do the best job because of my colleagues situation and now i need to

speak about some issues, some facts. i was a photographer for ap news agency. now i am a speaker and i am looking for background. i need to show something [unintelligible] and just looking for the tax. as you are watching, my english is not good enough for speaking. anyway, we live in a decade where the press are not allowed to answer all needs of human beings. the people living in [unintelligible] use their blogs to write about their life and profession and sometimes their opinion.

in the country like iran where blogging plays an important role amongst the young generation as well as those in middle age, all take a [unintelligible] there isfor -- for suppression of freedom -- [unintelligible] it can try and see anything you like. your feet will be unknown if you criticize the supreme leader or islamic issues. i would like to tell you about a man who supported the supreme leader for a year. he was a filmmaker and writer for a hard-line newspaper. he found out the results of the

june 2010 presidential election. he began to criticize the internal policy of the supreme leader. he also asked him to [unintelligible] following post-election ceremonies. the news -- he is in prison for four months. two weeks ago, the prosecutor said he does not stop and change his beliefs, he will not be permitted to see his family. this is one example of the fate of hundreds of journalists even if they have spent their careers supporting to the government but turning against the supreme leader. [unintelligible] they believe he is the

god on earth. many dissidents and journalists left the country is the faced serious punishment at the hands of the regime. the generation that grew up after the revolution and the establishment of the islamic republic demands freedom for their life. khomeinei was the father of the revolution. in 2009, they used -- the demand their rights to decide for their future. that see some pictures and i am

trying to speak over the pictures. you can compare the situation how was before the election and how it was after that. this is pictures which i took during the 10 years in iran. you can see some contrast of the pictures and some life in teh street in the universities and -- in the streets and the universities. you can find words how thwas the

situation in iran. no one believes, did john was just the elected by the people. since the supreme leader commiserated him as a result of the election. the council of the constitution is an appointed and constitutionally, ma'am -- mandated. that is why the power [unintelligible] on june 15, 3 million protesters came out of their homes and protested in the streets. they were in a peaceful march in tehran. the government killed several people in the hands of the

militia. after the administration opposed journalists and photographers, [unintelligible] to the media around the world. the islamic republic solve the loss of their power through the works of these photographers and restricted the media by creating an atmosphere of fear. this picture which you're looking now is for the demonstration in 1999 which was the previous 10 years ago and the start of when start ofbanned -- the government banned newspapers and students came out to protest. it is all the people they're

blaming nowadays. after the demonstration after the 2009 election, it was during that demonstration. that was a time which the people started to show there were not satisfied with the regime and this is the result of 10 years ago and demanding their rights. the regime banned all journalists and foreign -- asked for media to leave the country immediately. it was three days after june 12 and when the government said to the journalists, you need to flee the country. they fled the country. in order [unintelligible] and avoid coming into conflict with the iranian government, some international news agencies covered stories from [unintelligible] in the last 10 months, all the

photos were published by international news agencies [unintelligible] and the use of the photos from a known photographers. the fact that the photographer's photos are unknown ardemonstrate the atmosphere. with reference to all that has been said, we realize the power of pictures in age of technology and [unintelligible] in the value of images posted by in the value of images posted by people and sites such as

the one you are looking at. they are all journalists. five years ago, they were an association of iranian journalists. they shall their protest for shutting down the newspapers. they are attending that association place. the government closed the association of iranian journalists in that 2009, and there were no people to support the iranian journalists. has been said, the regime has published images of the people. this is the new story that used photography as the power to identify the people. it was really dangerous for the photographers, you cannot carry your camera on the street. the people who were on the

streets and showed their protests against the government, they identified an official [unintelligible] established by security, may be police, maybe other officials or the revolutionary guard. they showed some pictures of the demonstrators and they asked the people to identify them. this is dangerous for the photographers. they could not even say, we are from the press and people did not trust them. this was one of the situations with the photographers at that time that they saw with the regime. through the regime, how the regime has published images of the people sick -- connected to security centers, this is an

effort to identify them. in so being, has used those. the islamic republic has also changed from the greater intimidation by that medium of the photos. if -- a few days after the election, june 2-9, the government searched for pictures 10 months later in a way -- searched for pictures 10 months later. all protesters were punished by the government and protesters were killed, imprisoned, tortured, raped, forced confessions on tv claiming they were spying for israel or western countries. these actions that many

journalists fled the country. an example is [unintelligible] an iranian-canadian correspondent who was arrested june 21 a few days after the election. a few days after the arrest, he was forced to confess he acted against islamic establishment by working for western media. he wrote an article in newsweek about the duration in prison in the arts commission how his interrogators accused him of spying for cia and mossad. [unintelligible] about 30 journalists are held in prison. you're not allowed to speak of freedom of speech while this regime is under power. in this situation, speaking

about [unintelligible] is next to impossible. [unintelligible] after the june 2009 election. most of them have left the country without any support. some speak persian and have serious financial problems while living in exile. the have to pay others to help them leave the country. many of them live in turkey and waiting to receive support by human-rights organizations or the un. we are the -- the only organization that could support them disappeared. in the past 10 years, more than 300 newspapers, magazines, or

websites were closed down. which means that there is no justice -- security for the professional and journalists and photographers and other workers. in 2009, the magazines were banned from publishing. sometimes the publishing of a single vote or picture of -- or photo was a reason for shutting down the new source. in mid-march, a senior cleric who is the head for the shia muslims issued an announcement. he said any connection with western media is against islamic law. they note that some iranian journalists who left the country who are working in some persian- based tv channels in europe or in america and they know some

influential channels and they want to give serious [unintelligible] for the journalists living in exile. filtering the internet by the government has stopped iranians from having access to free information. the decision by the [unintelligible] to give sanctions on internet service exposed to iran, it is very important to support. this is a picture which i mentioned which is informing the people which is coming from the official side. -- site. it is linked to the security organization and they are showing a picture of the demonstrators.

this is very important to support people to reach their universal rights to free speech. even the journalists to travel to iran to cover the ceremony commemorating the 31st anniversary of iran's revolution in february 2010 did not have a chance to interview people and they had only the one podium in front of the ahmadinejad speech which is normal for [unintelligible] and that ceremony officially. the iranian people have used citizen journalists during the past 10 months as an alternative to fight against their regimes censorship, on social networks like facebook and twitter. i think the professional journalism has changed the face of this citizen journalists. this is important after the election which all the people

there are using their cell phone and we saw the picture which shocked the world. it is and know the person who shot that picture. it was for us, like a terrifying moment. they asked me to stop the work and take a picture. you saw some of the results of my pictures after the election. i showed some footage of the video documenting some windows. journalism in iran, the face -- they face a dangerous situation. others are waiting in turkey and other countries to be interviewed and get some chances

to get some help with human rights organizations or the un. this is an important point. t[unintelligible] to get freedom of speech in the country, this is the moment. for 20 years, that was enough. in 30 years, my experience, when i was -- [unintelligible] and then the media and newspaper was controlled by the government. the new sources coming from the government side. this is important to the foreign countries, european and american or other organizations and international organizations to get information to the people inside their country. it is not enough to say we need

to leave the sanctions. this is some portent. when the issues are controlled by the government, you need to think about the change of the ideas of the people. the new generation [unintelligible] you cannot check your e-mail account easily. it takes more than 10 minutes just opening one page. how can you inform your father or mother or others? in the university situation is better than others. there is no even one newspaper or one news channel or one tv channel. all controlling by the supreme leader. the supreme leader is commander in chief. any members of the guardian council which i mentioned, they

appointed the leader and they are saying, you can come to the election or you cannot do that. they are disqualified more than 2000 in the past 10 years for attending the free elections. this is important to say. our colleagues and also the people who they believe are hoping to change the country. my country is challenging with many problems. any time we're speaking about the freedom of speech, we are resource -- [unintelligible] this is 2010 and we can discuss the present. 2010 is important because honesty, as a professional

photographer, i did not think [unintelligible] it was terrifying. the interrogation, any moment, your phone is taping, any trips they are monitoring. you cannot get access to any free information. for one pictures you're taking, it is bringing many problems for you. some of the photographers even for one picture, the stickout. let me tell you, the struggle for the journalists [unintelligible] in the last election. they are now just fortunate to

be my friends here. a week ago from iran. i asked how is the situation and he said it was terrifying. some of my colleagues are taxi drivers or shop sellers. they cannot speak like the english. i can tell you the story. if you want oto talk about the truth, it is difficult in this situation. it is comparing the renaissance in europe. you cannot access for information in iran and you need to follow like any other supporters of the khomeini and

it cannot say the words that they like. in this situation, talking about the freedom, it is kind of dangerous and playing with fire. i think i -- i do not know if there are any questions coming, i am ready to answer. thank you for coming and sharing with the iranian journalists. on behalf of those people who cannot access freedom of speech, i appreciate this and for the reporters without borders, it is an honor for me to speak here. i think we can witness a new future of freedom, really freedom of iran. anyone can say their ideas freely. thank you very much. [applause]