(RSF/IFEX) – RSF welcomes Reza Alijani’s release on bail on 16 December 2001. Alijani, editor-in-chief of the suspended reformist monthly “Iran-e-Farda” (“Iran Tomorrow”), was released after spending nine months in prison. The editor, who was awarded the tenth RSF – Fondation de France Prize on 28 November, supports a secular state and has been under […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF welcomes Reza Alijani’s release on bail on 16 December 2001. Alijani, editor-in-chief of the suspended reformist monthly “Iran-e-Farda” (“Iran Tomorrow”), was released after spending nine months in prison. The editor, who was awarded the tenth RSF – Fondation de France Prize on 28 November, supports a secular state and has been under pressure from conservatives for several years. He has received many death threats over the years and has often been summoned before revolutionary courts for his support of press freedom and reform in general. Alijani was arrested in February, ten months after his magazine was banned, and accused of acting “against state security”. He was held in prison for 295 days without trial, and in fact, his trial date has yet to be scheduled. “We are very pleased to hear that Reza Alijani has been released,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard, “but we must not forget that Iran is still the Middle East’s biggest prison for journalists.”
The repression of journalists continues in Iran. The reformist weekly “Asr-e-Ma” was shut down by the authorities on 15 December and its publisher, Mohammad Salamati, was sentenced to twenty-six months’ imprisonment. He is still free pending appeal. He was accused of spreading a rumour in December 2000 to the effect that an attempt had been made to overthrow President Mohammad Khatami. He had told a meeting of students that conservatives had “put a resolution before the Supreme Court” charging that Khatami was “incompetent” to govern. The “rumour” was denied by a government source. A legal official, Abassalki Alizadeh, then lodged a formal complaint against Salamati for having published an article on 12 December 2000 in which the journalist criticised “the way in which radio, television and the legal authorities” had reacted to his statements.
“Asr-e-Ma” is the second publication to be suspended in Iran over a four-day period. “Neda-ye-hormozgan”, a reformist weekly published in the southern province of Hormozgan, was closed on 13 December. Its editor, Gholam-Hossein Ataiee, was given a five-year suspended jail sentence and fined 15 million rials (approx. US$8,600; 9,500 euros). The charges against him are unknown.
RSF recalls that Iran has the sad reputation of being the region’s largest prison for journalists, with seventeen in jail today. Since April 2000, the legal system, which is dominated by conservatives, has suspended some 20 daily newspapers and 30 reformist magazines and jailed dozens of journalists, most of whom have yet to be tried after spending months in detention. RSF has included Ali Khameni, the Islamic Republic’s official “Guide of the Revolution”, on its list of thirty-nine international press freedom predators.
