A group of writers, journalists, programme makers and managers of Persian-language media outside Iran have, in a statement, thanked the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom for its decision to award the 2026 Freedom Prize to Prince Reza Pahlavi on behalf of the people of Iran. The press office of Prince Reza Pahlavi published news of the statement on the evening of Thursday 22 October 2026 and made its full text available on the website of the «We Take Back Iran» campaign.
The statement is the latest link in a wave of support that has reached the Naumann Foundation in recent weeks from various groups of Iranians: from political activists and families of those killed to political organisations of different leanings. The addition of media figures and writers to these ranks shows that acceptance of Prince Reza Pahlavi's role as representative of the people of Iran for this prize has gone beyond any single political camp.
The 2026 Freedom Prize and the Frankfurt ceremony
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the political foundation affiliated with Germany's Free Democratic Party, announced in Shahrivar (August–September) this year that it would award the 2026 Freedom Prize not to an individual but to the people of Iran, to honour all those who have risked their lives in standing up to the Islamic Republic. According to the foundation, Prince Reza Pahlavi accepts the prize on behalf of, and in trust for, the people of Iran until the day it can be handed to the freely elected representatives of the Iranian nation.
Explaining its choice, the Naumann Foundation described Prince Reza Pahlavi as the best-known opponent of the Islamic Republic, committed to the return of freedom and democracy to Iran. The award ceremony is scheduled for Saturday 7 November 2026 at St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, where Bijan Djir-Sarai, a German politician of Iranian origin from the Free Democratic Party, will deliver the laudatory speech.
A chain of support for the prize
Earlier, at the initiative of the group «Patriotic Physicians of Iran», a letter signed by 1,700 Iranian activists and families of those killed, inside and outside the country, was delivered to the Naumann Foundation in support of the decision. On Wednesday 21 October, eleven Iranian republican organisations, in a letter to the foundation's board, also backed Prince Reza Pahlavi receiving the prize on behalf of the Iranian nation.
Writers and Persian-language media figures abroad have joined the supporters of awarding the 2026 Freedom Prize to the people of Iran, represented by Prince Reza Pahlavi.
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