(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned government harassment of the press after a pro-opposition journalist was given a six-month suspended sentence, a regional daily was suspended and nine journalists were summoned. On 1 March 2005, a Tehran high court upheld a March 2004 suspended jail term given to Mohammad Hassan Alipour, editor of the daily “Aban”. […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned government harassment of the press after a pro-opposition journalist was given a six-month suspended sentence, a regional daily was suspended and nine journalists were summoned.
On 1 March 2005, a Tehran high court upheld a March 2004 suspended jail term given to Mohammad Hassan Alipour, editor of the daily “Aban”. Alipour was also banned from practicing his profession for two years. He will have to serve out the sentence if he is arrested again during this time.
In two separate cases, the daily “Nedai Azarabadegan” was suspended for two months by a court in East Azerbaijan Province, northeast Iran, while nine journalists in Iranian Kurdistan were summoned to appear before the courts.
“On the eve of the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Iran has yet again distinguished itself as one of the most repressive countries in terms of press freedom. The summonses and suspended prison terms serve as a Damocles sword over the heads of journalists who fail to censor themselves,” RSF said. “At the slightest feeling that an article is blasphemous the authorities summon journalists to put them in prison or prevent them from working.”
“With nine journalists imprisoned, Iran remains the Middle East’s biggest prison for the profession. More than a dozen newspapers were suspended in 2004, either temporarily or permanently, and at least 60 journalists were summoned by the authorities,” the organisation added.
On 28 February 2005, Tehran’s chief justice, Abbas Ali Alizadeh, said that the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroudi, had given instructions that “journalists should not be treated like criminals”. The following day, however, Tehran prosecutor Saïd Mortazavi denied the existence of any such instructions, saying he had received “no order to halt suspensions of newspapers.”
The daily “Nedai Azarabadegan” received a two-month suspension order from a court in East Azerbaijan Province approximately ten days ago. It was also ordered to pay a fine of 3 million rials (approx. US$335; 257 euros). Several government authorities had filed complaints against the paper for “publishing false reports” after it criticised the management of various ministries and exposed numerous cases of corruption. According to the paper’s editor, Abolfazel Vessali, “All this harassment is aimed at silencing an independent and critical newspaper.”
In a separate case, nine journalists were summoned before a court in Sanandaj, Iranian Kurdistan, (western Iran), for “publishing false reports” and “blasphemy”. They include former “Payam-e mardom-e Kurdestan” editor Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand and eight of his journalists: Tonya Kabovand, Ejlal Ghavami, Namo Hedayati, Yosef Azizi, Kaveh Hosinpanahi, Jahangir Hashemi Jamsid Vaziri, Hasan Amini and Majid Mohamadi. The authorities published summons notices in the local newspapers, saying that the journalists had gone into hiding, without even attempting to send summonses to their homes. Some of the journalists had earlier been threatened with arrest, in June 2004, when the newspaper was suspended.
