(IPI/IFEX) – IPI is concerned about the continued clampdown on Iran’s press. The organisation was informed that on 2 February 1999, an Iranian court banned the liberal cultural journal “Adineh” after it found the bi-weekly’s editor “guilty of insult and dissemination of lies and corrupt articles.” The court ordered Gholam Hussein Zekeri to pay fines […]
(IPI/IFEX) – IPI is concerned about the continued clampdown on Iran’s press.
The organisation was informed that on 2 February 1999, an Iranian court
banned the liberal cultural journal “Adineh” after it found the bi-weekly’s
editor “guilty of insult and dissemination of lies and corrupt articles.”
The court ordered Gholam Hussein Zekeri to pay fines totalling nine million
rials (approximately US$1,035).
On 24 January, the liberal newspaper “Zan” was banned for two weeks. The ban
was based on charges made by the head of police security, Mohammad Naki,
after an article in the daily accused Naki of having been involved in an
attack on Vice President Abdollah Nuri and Minister of Culture Ata’ollah
Mohajerani in front of Tehran University in September. “Zan” (“Woman”) is
published by Faeseh Hashemi, the daughter of former President Akhbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, and is the first publication aimed at a female audience.
IPI is deeply concerned that moderate newspapers, many of which started
publishing after President Mohammad Khatami’s 1997 election, are
increasingly under threat as the Iranian judiciary, which is dominated by
the conservative opposition, accuse the media of acting against Islam and
the country’s security. Former Culture and Islamic Guidance Deputy Minister
Ahmad Bourquani – a noted moderate and the country’s top press official
before announcing his resignation earlier this week – was quoted by Iranian
newspapers on 2 February as saying: “They (conservative opponents) hurled
accusations at us for trying to establish press freedom and said this would
intensify the Western cultural onslaught.”
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the President:
Iran over recent months constitutes a blatant violation of the right to free
information under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory
judicial harassment of the press and to allow the resumption of the banned
publications
Appeals To
His Excellency Mohammad Khatami
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Presidency
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Fax: +98 21 64 66 415
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
