CNN
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Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been freed from an Iranian prison and is on a plane home, a spokesperson for the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Wednesday, weeks after she was arrested while reporting in Tehran.
Sala is a reporter for the Italian daily Il Foglio, which said the journalist was held in Tehran’s Evin prison after being detained in mid-December while covering “a country she knows and loves.”
On Wednesday, Meloni’s office said: “The plane that is bringing journalist Cecilia Sala home took off a few minutes ago from Tehran.
“Thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels, our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities and is returning to Italy,” the statement added.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella informed the journalist’s parents of the news during a phone call on Wednesday morning, according to the statement.
The Italian outlet Chora Media, where Sala also works, said that she had left Rome on December 12 “with a valid journalistic visa and the protections of a journalist on assignment.
“She conducted several interviews and produced three episodes of the Stories podcast for Chora News,” the media outlet said in late December, adding that it was making Sala’s detention public weeks later because her parents and Italian authorities had initially asked it to remain silent, hoping for a swift release.
Iranian state news agency IRNA, citing the Iranian Ministry of Culture, said last month that Sala was arrested after “violating the laws of the Islamic republic of Iran,” but Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said several days after her detention that “we still don’t know the charges.”
Iran’s regime is one of the most repressive in the world on press freedom, particularly cracking down on media rights after a wave of protests rocked the country in 2022.
Only four countries – North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea – have worse records on press freedom, according to an annual tally compiled by non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders.