(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Zürich, Switzerland, 14 June 1999 For immediate release Iranian Editor Receives WAN Golden Pen The World Association of Newspapers on Monday awarded its 1999 Golden Pen of Freedom to exiled Iranian journalist Faraj Sarkohi, in recognition of his outstanding services to the cause of press freedom. […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Zürich, Switzerland, 14 June 1999
For immediate release
Iranian Editor Receives WAN Golden Pen
The World Association of Newspapers on Monday awarded its 1999 Golden Pen of
Freedom to exiled Iranian journalist Faraj Sarkohi, in recognition of his
outstanding services to the cause of press freedom.
Mr. Sarkohi, who was imprisoned and tortured by both the regimes of the Shah
and the Islamic Republic, was expelled from Iran last year after three
decades of writing against censorship and in favour of democracy.
The Golden Pen award was presented at the opening of WAN’s 52nd World
Newspaper Congress and 6th World Editors Forum, in the presence of 1,125
publishers and editors from 88 countries. In receiving the award, Mr Sarkohi
said:
“For 32 years, I have lived by the pen, and for 32 years, I have yearned for
freedom of the pen. During the Shah’s despotic rule over Iran, I was
imprisoned for eight years,” adding that his “crime” was “that I printed and
distributed a social and literary magazine and wrote articles banned by the
tyrant’s censors.”
“During the tyranny of the Islamic Republic, I was condemned to be executed
three times. My real crimes were that, for 11 years, I was chief editor of a
social and literary magazine, I criticised censorship and fought against it,
I signed and published several texts against censorship, I strove for press
freedom, I published a whole range of opinions, I fought for freedom of
expression, and I was an active member of the Iranian Writers’ Association.”
“International support and world pressure saved my life and obtained my
release,” he said, adding that the Golden Pen award was “a reminder of the
solidarity of all those who believe in freedom of the pen and the press and
in Human Rights as universal values.”
Mr Sarkohi, 52, is former editor of the cultural journal Adineh and the most
prominent figure in the clash between intellectuals and the Iranian regime
over freedom of speech. He was an organiser of a celebrated 1994 statement
calling for an end to censorship in Iran.
In November 1996, Mr Sarkohi disappeared for 47 days during which he was
interrogated by the Iranian authorities and badly tortured. Iran falsely
claimed he had been in Germany, accused him of spying and jailed him in
January 1997.
During a closed trial in September 1997, Mr Sarkoohi was convicted of
slandering Iran and sentenced to a year in prison. He was released in
January 1998 but denied a passport until authorities bowed to international
pressure to permit him to leave Iran in May. He lives in exile in Germany.
In presenting the Golden Pen award, the President-elect of the World Editors
Forum, Ruth De Aquino, said: “A well-known English proverb says: ‘You shall
judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends’. This adage comes to mind
in the case of Faraj Sarkohi, a journalist imprisoned and tortured by two
regimes that were themselves sworn enemies: that of the Shah of Persia and
that of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The Golden Pen for Freedom, given annually by WAN since 1961, recognises the
outstanding action of an individual, group or institution in the cause of
press freedom. Past winners include Argentina’s Jacobo Timerman (1980),
Russia’s Sergei Grigoryants (1989), and China’s Gao Yu (1995). The 1998
winner, Vietnam’s Doan Viet Hoat, was freed from prison last year following
an international opinion campaign organised by WAN and other press freedom
groups.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry,
defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 15,000
newspapers; its membership includes 62 national newspaper associations,
individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies and seven
regional press groups.
