Siamak Pourzand

Siamak Pourzand (‎; 17 September 1931 – 29 April 2011) was an Iranian journalist and film critic. He was the manager of the Majmue-ye Farhangi-Honari-ye Tehran—a cultural center for writers, artists, and intellectuals—and wrote cultural commentary for several reformist newspapers later shut down by the Iranian government. In 2001, he was imprisoned for his articles critical of Iranian leadership, a move condemned by numerous human rights and journalism organizations. In the 1960s and 70s, Pourzand served as an American correspondent for the newspaper Keyhan. His notable assignments included covering the funeral of John F. Kennedy as well as interviewing Richard Nixon. He also reported on Hollywood and became one of Iran's "best known film critics", writing for the French film journal Cahiers du cinéma. In the late 1990s, he began to write a series of articles critical to the government, placing them in opposition newspapers. Among them was a piece on the funerals of Dariush and Parvaneh Eskandari Forouhar, victims of Iran's 1998 "Chain Murders", in which a series of prominent dissidents were murdered in their homes by members of Iran's intelligence agency. Pourzand's own arrest soon followed. On 29 November 2001, days after reportedly seeing men following him on motorcycles, According to his daughters, he committed suicide by jumping from the sixth-story balcony of his apartment in Tehran. His daughter, Banafsheh Zand, stated after his death that "He leapt to his own death to prove his disgust for a regime that is inhumane and un-Iranian", while another daughter, Azadeh Pourzand, commented that "I would like to think of his death as a way for him to finally find freedom."

The Telegraph reported that Iranian authorities initially refused to hand over Pourzand's body to his family for burial, imposed restrictions on the eulogies at his funeral, and confiscated the cell phones and cameras of reporters.

Pourzand was a first cousin of Persian poet Ahmad Shamlou on his mother's side. On September 30, 2022, Judge John Bates ordered that Iran is liable for torturing and hostage taking of Mr. Pourzand. The Court awarded compensatory damages totaling, with prejudgment interest, $17,403,063.01 for Plaintiffs. The Court will also award punitive damages of $17,403,063.01. Plaintiffs’ total award is $34,806,126.02. Ali Herischi was the attorney for Plaintiffs.