(RSF/IFEX) – In two letters addressed to Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin, RSF has stated its expectation that the subject of press freedom will be discussed with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Khatami. RSF also asked that the Iranian president’s efforts with regard to press freedom and human rights be encouraged […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In two letters addressed to Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin,
RSF has stated its expectation that the subject of press freedom will be
discussed with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad
Khatami. RSF also asked that the Iranian president’s efforts with regard to
press freedom and human rights be encouraged by French authorities. Robert
Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general, explained that: “Repression of
liberal media has become the main area of confrontation among the various
political clans. This is why it seems necessary to us that France support
all initiatives which favour the regime’s liberalisation, introduced by
President Khatami since his election in 1997.” He added: “Reporters sans
frontières is conscious of President Khatami’s influence, through his
constitutional prerogatives, on government policy concerning freedom of
expression. On a number of subjects, his intervention and support would
allow a move towards greater liberalisation: a presidential pardon for
journalists sentenced to prison, the launching of inquiries into the
disappearance or murder of journalists, the non-issue of the particularly
restrictive press law, and, the relaxing of criteria allowing the
publication of suspended newspapers.”
According to the information gathered by RSF, three journalists remain
imprisoned in Iran :
– Morteza Firouzi, editor-in-chief of the English-language newspaper “Iran
News”, was arrested in May 1997. Further to his January 1998 in camera
trial, the journalist, known for his independent political stance, was
sentenced to death for “adultery” and “espionage for Japan, South Korea and
France”. On 3 June, the Supreme Court repealed his death sentence. RSF has
no information on the journalist since that decision. It seems that no new
trial has taken place to date.
– on 21 April 1999, Mohsen Kadivar, an intellectual pro-reform mullah, was
sentenced by the Special Court of the Clergy to eighteen months imprisonment
with no parole for “propaganda” against the regime, because of his articles
favouring a greater autonomy of politics from religion.
– on 19 June 1999, the editor-in-chief of the reformist weekly
“Hoviyat-é-Khich”, Hechmatollah Tabarzardi, was arrested by order of
Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, further to a complaint of “false information”
by the Ministry of Culture.
In addition, six journalists are currently missing. Pirouz Davani, a
political activist and editor-in-chief of the “leftist modernist” newspaper
“Pirouz”, disappeared in August 1998. In its 28 November 1998 edition, the
newspaper “Kar-e-Karagar” makes mention of rumours concerning his
“execution”. During the 1980’s, he had been a member of the (pro-Soviet
communist) Toudeh Party and was detained from 1982 to 1989. Moreover,
according to the 11 and 18 August 1999 editions of the independent weekly
“Aban”, Djavad Emami and Mohamad Massoud Salamati, journalists of the banned
weekly “Hoviyat-é-Khich”, Mehti Khaki Firose, an independent journalist, Ali
Mehri and Oroudj Amiri, journalists of the weekly “Omid Zandjani”, were
arrested in late July or in early August. These arrests have not been
officially confirmed.
Concerning the series of murders of intellectuals and opposition figures in
November and December 1998 – Darioush and Parvaneh Forouhar, key figures of
the liberal opposition, Majid Charif, an editorialist for the monthly “Iran
Farda”, the writer-journalists Mohamad Mokhtari and Mohamad Jafar
Pouyandeh -, RSF has made note of President Khatami’s positive statements
concerning shedding light on these events, notably including the launching
of an official commission of inquiry at the beginning of this year. Despite
the resignation of the information minister, who was directly implicated,
and the arrest of dozens of suspects, the initial expectation of seeing
those responsible for these murders brought to trial and punished has yet to
materialise.
On 7 July, the Iranian parliament approved a bill which increases penalties
and legal action against the press. This amendment is a threat to media
freedom. Journalists have an obligation to reveal their sources, press
offences said to endanger “national security” are henceforth tried by the
revolutionary courts, which sit in camera and are reknown for their
harshness, newspapers are suspended while inquiries take place, etc.
