(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, RSF protested the suspension of the daily “Bahar”. The organisation asked that “the suspension of the newspaper and that of twenty-three other publications be cancelled”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said he deplored “this new blow against the reformist press.” On 6 August […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi, RSF protested the suspension of the daily “Bahar”. The organisation asked that “the suspension of the newspaper and that of twenty-three other publications be cancelled”. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said he deplored “this new blow against the reformist press.” On 6 August 2000, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei forced the parliament to withdraw from its agenda an amendment which would have liberalised the press law. In a press release the following day, Ménard denounced the “decision, taken against the people’s will, which was expressed in favour of democratisation and liberalisation of the regime in the February 2000 general elections.”
According to information collected by RSF, on 2 August, Tehran’s Press Court ordered the 8 August suspension of the reformist daily “Bahar”. The newspaper is run by Said Pour-Azizi, who is also in charge of the president’s press service. The court justified its decision by “several complaints and dubiousnesses”, notably the publishing of “false reports”. On 7 August, the daily published a statement attributed to the president’s brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who claimed that the decision of Iran’s supreme guide, Ayatollah Khamenei, to withdraw from the parliament’s agenda an amendment to the press law that was to liberalise journalism, was a plot organised against parliament”. “Bahar” was one of the last reformist publications still authorised; its suspension prevents reformers from accessing a significant forum.
Following the new wave of repression against the press in the last few days, eleven journalists are now imprisoned in Iran. Twenty-four publications have been banned since 1 January.
