Authorities arrested Sadra Mohaghegh at his home on the morning of September 19. 

Reporting his arrest, Mehr News said that Mohaghgeh, the society editor for reformist newspaper Shargh, had been working with so-called “anti-Iranian” media outlets outside Iran. 

Mohaghegh regularly reported on environmental issues in Iran, and interviewed the head of Iran’s Environmental Protection Organization, Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, in June. 

Shargh is one of Iran’s most prominent reformist newspapers, and is well known outside Iran.

Over the last year, several journalists have been arrested for “collusion with Western governments,” including Ehsan Mazandarani, managing editor of the newspaper Farhikhtegan, who has threatened to resume his hunger strike unless authorities conduct an investigation into his case and the cases of other jailed journalists accused of being a part of “infiltration networks.”