(RSF/IFEX) – RSF declared its firm support for a sit-in by more than 200 journalists in Tehran on 26 July 2004, calling the action “courageous and determined.” The move was in protest of the suspension one week earlier of reformist dailies “Vaghayeh ettefaghieh” and “Jomhouriat” and of new judicial measures aimed at purging the media […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF declared its firm support for a sit-in by more than 200 journalists in Tehran on 26 July 2004, calling the action “courageous and determined.” The move was in protest of the suspension one week earlier of reformist dailies “Vaghayeh ettefaghieh” and “Jomhouriat” and of new judicial measures aimed at purging the media of opponents to the regime.
“Threats to press freedom have increased since the hijacking of last February’s parliamentary elections by the regime’s hardliners,” said RSF. “After closing down more than 120 reformist newspapers in four years and repeatedly summoning and imprisoning journalists, Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor Said Mortazavi has launched a new strategy to stifle a press that, against all odds, refuses to be silenced.”
RSF said Mortazavi, who has the full support of the country’s Supreme Guide, has drawn up a black list to prevent journalists from closed papers from working for other papers. “This is a clever trick to gag all reformist journalists and we strongly condemn such blackmailing of newspapers by the judiciary,” said the organisation.
The sit-in was staged in front of the headquarters of the Association of Iranian Journalists. Participating journalists were joined by civil society figures, including lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and the families of imprisoned journalists. An open letter was sent to Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Ahmad Masjed Jamei and Labour Minister Nasser Khaleghi, both reformists, noting that the efforts to silence journalists violated Articles 22, 28 and 43 of the Constitution, as well as the right to work and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“Vaghayeh ettefaghieh” was suspended indefinitely on 17 July for “anti-regime propaganda”, “publishing false information” and “insulting the Supreme Guide”. The paper, largely staffed by journalists from the reformist daily “Yas-e no”, which was suspended on 18 February, the eve of the parliamentary elections, has sharply criticised the regime’s hardliners and the new Parliament dominated by their supporters. The suspension order from Mortazavi mentioned specifically that the paper’s editorial team came largely from the defunct “Yas-e no”.
“Jomhouriat”, a new paper which had published only 12 issues, was suspended on 18 July on the same charges. The suspension order came only days after publisher Javad Khorami Moaghadam was summoned by Mortazavi, who demanded in vain that Moaghadam fire the paper’s editor-in-chief, Emadoldin Baghi, a leading figure of the reformist press and staunch free expression advocate.
