Communication (Journalism) Honours Thesis at Deakin University, Australia Faculty of Arts and Education June

Keywords: Iranian journalists, exiled journalists, refugee, camp, Iran, Australia

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Methodology 
In this research, I critically analyse a number of documents using subjective epistemology. My 
study has two sections: an exegesis entitled Dissident Iranian Journalists are not Welcome; 
Not in Iran, Not in Australia
and a creative writing piece entitled Wasted Lives under the 
Mango Tree..
In this study, there were three study questions. The first question involved a 
historical description of Iran as the backdrop for the second and third questions. These two 
questions are about a refugee’s life in Australia in contrast to a refugee’s life in Australian 
offshore detention camps. These three questions are: Why did some Iranian journalists flee Iran 
after the election in 2009 (the Green Movement)? What happened to those who fled to 
Australia? Moreover, how did they find a way to speak out and continue their journalistic or 
writing activities while in exile?
A study of secondary resources in two languages - Farsi and English - brought a new 
perspective to this type of research and gave a profound understanding of the three study aims. 
My first task was to read the academic papers, books, news, re-posts, and documents about the 
factors that contributed to the Islamic revolution of Iran as a focal point of the fundamental 
changes in the press laws and the severity of press suppression. To describe the difference 
between press law before and after the Islamic revolution of 1979, some of the laws and media 
circumstances of these two historical periods have been compared.
To better address the first question, I analysed the news in Farsi and then studied and analysed 
the tools and types of media suppression. There is a great deal of official news in Farsi (for 
example, dissident Iranian media such as BBC Farsi and Voice of America) as well as social 
media on this topic. However, there is a dearth of academic studies in Farsi on this issue 
because the topi
c is banned in Iran’s universities. All academic studies and books on this 
subject are in other languages and published outside of Iran.
The challenge of information-gathering in Farsi related to finding reliable resources with 
respect to the banned subjects in Iran which directly involved the subject of my first study 
question. For example, it is problematic to access the accurate number of journalists who were 
arrested or killed by the Iranian authority or an accurate number of protesters who were arrested 
in the Green Movement. Also, there is no accurate information about the number of journalists 
who had no choice but to flee Iran and seek shelter in another country. These issues aside, the 

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exact number of newspapers that were banned after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 is not clear, 
or there is only one resource in this regard such as Wikipedia.
To describe and to find the answers to my last two study questions, all published productions 
of two Iranian journalists who sought asylum in Australia were examined. The first was 
Behrouz Boochani; the second was myself.
My study has some advantages and disadvantages. Studying and using resources in two 
languages and cultures can be seen to be an advantage as it brings new aspects of the situation 
to the public knowledge. However, having some references in Farsi, or transcribed to English, 
may potentially be considered as a disadvantage for the English readers of this study.
This study about the situation of exiled Iranian journalists in Australia and in offshore detention 
is very new and should be the subject of further research and analysis.

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