Watchdog

A group of Iranian journalists has openly criticized President Hassan Rohani for claiming that reporters are not being jailed in the Islamic republic.

Rohani made the remark in an interview with CNN in New York on September 26.

He told the U.S. cable television network: "I do not believe that an individual would be detained or put in prison for being a journalist."

But an open letter on October 2, signed by 135 journalists and activists, says the Iranian president is “distorting and denying reality."

The letter accuses Rohani of not living up to his election promise to ease government controls on the media.

In June, the press rights group Reporters Without Borders said it knew of 58 journalists who were being jailed in Iran.

It said: "Iran is still one of the world’s five biggest prisons for news and information providers."

A UN report says Islamic State (IS) militants and other armed groups have committed a "staggering" number of gross human rights violations and "acts of violence" in northern Iraq that could amount to war crimes.

A joint report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released on October 2 lists serious violations of international law and gross abuses from July 6 to September 10.

The offenses includes mass executions, the abduction of women and girls as sex slaves, and using children as fighters.

The report also said Iraqi government air strikes had caused "significant" civilian deaths and injuries, particularly in western Anbar Province.

It said nearly 10,000 people were killed in Iraq by Islamists in September and some 1.8 million Iraqis fled their homes.