Iran releases Italian journalist Cecilia Sala from prison

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was freed from Iranian prison and is returning to Rome, officials said on Wednesday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said a plane carrying Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels”. The leader said the government had informed Sala’s family of the news.

The Iranian government did not immediately comment on the 29-year-old’s release.

Sala was detained in Iran on 19 December. She arrived in the country three days earlier on a journalist visa as a reporter for the II Foglio daily and freelancer for Chora Media, a podcast company.

The last three episodes of a podcast Sala produced all featured Iranian guests: a female comedian, a former military commander and a young woman who rejected conservative values.

Sala was due to fly home on 20 December. However, she stopped answering messages the day before — which is when she was detained, according to local media.

Tehran said Sala had “violated the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, according to Iranian state media. The country’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said at the time they were launching an investigation into Sala’s case.

Her employer, newspaper Il Foglio, said when Sala was arrested that “journalism is not a crime”.

“Cecilia was in Iran, with a regular visa, to report on a country she knows and loves, a country in which information is suffocated by repression,” the newspaper said.

After Sala’s arrest, Italy’s foreign ministry said it was following her case with the “utmost attention” and using “high-level political and diplomatic action” to secure her release.