(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 7 August 2000 RSF press release: Iran Reporters sans frontières: “Ali Khamenei proves once again that he is one of the most dangerous predators of press freedom” Six months after the legislative elections, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) is increasingly concerned about the state of press freedom in Iran. On […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 7 August 2000 RSF press release:
Iran
Reporters sans frontières: “Ali Khamenei proves once again that he is one of the most dangerous predators of press freedom”
Six months after the legislative elections, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) is increasingly concerned about the state of press freedom in Iran. On 7 August, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, obliged the reformist-dominated parliament to take amendment of the press law off the agenda. The law, passed in April 2000 by a conservative parliament, is particularly liberticidal. For Robert Ménard, RSFâs secretary-general, “this decision kills any hope of the regimeâs liberalisation and proves that Ali Khamenei is one of the twenty most dangerous predators of press freedom, as registered by RSF.” “The conservative movement controls power in reality,” added Robert Ménard, who denounced “a decision taken regardless of the people’s will, which was expressed in favour of the democratisation and liberalisation of the regime in the general elections of February 2000.” In April 2000, the press law marked the start of a censorship campaign against the reformist press. In the last few days, two journalists have been arrested, two others sentenced to prison and two publications shut down. This new wave of repression includes twenty-three publications shut down since 1 January 2000 and eleven journalists imprisoned. After Burma, Iran is the biggest jail for journalists in the world.
On 6 August, Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, by virtue of his constitutional prerogatives, obliged parliament to cancel a debate, scheduled that day, on an amendment to the press law that was to liberalise journalism. The press law was defiantly adopted by the former parliament. It prohibits banned newspapers from being republished under another name and makes it more difficult to obtain a publication licence. The text also states that a journalist who has already been sentenced cannot work as a journalist anymore and that an article is the responsibility not only of the editor-in-chief but also of the author. Other articles of the press law prevent newspapers from receiving “direct or indirect aid from abroad” and from publishing articles which criticise the constitution.
On 7 August, the press court of Tehran issued a warrant of arrest against Ahmad Zeid-Abadi, journalist with the reformist daily Hamchahri, because of his “refusal to appear in court”. Two days earlier, Hassan Youssefi Echkevari, a former contributor to the now-banned monthly Iran-e-Farda, was temporarily detained in Evin jail, Tehran, after searches by the clerical court at his residence upon his return from France. Mr. Echkevari is accused of “threatening national security” and “insulting Islam and the authorities”. He attended a conference in April in Berlin, considered “anti-Islamic” and “anti-revolutionary” by the Iranian authorities, and stayed in Europe to be treated for diabetes. His health is likely to deteriorate in detention.
Two other journalists have been sentenced by Iranian courts. On 5 August, Ahmad Hakimi-Pour, director of the liberal weekly Omid-e-Zanjan, was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment and a year’s banning from journalistic activities by the press court of Tehran. He is guilty of insulting the commander of the Guardians of the Revolution, General Rahim Safavi. The newspaper director has twenty days to lodge an appeal. On the same day, Nasser Jafari, director of the weekly Techmeh-e-Ardebil, was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment and a million rial (150 euros) cash fine for “insulting top-ranking officials”. The newspaper, published in Ardebil, Iranian Azerbaijan, in the North-West of the country, has been shut down for four months. Mr. Jafari has lodged an appeal. The hearing will take place on 9 August 2000. The reformist weekly Tavana was also closed on 5 August for an undisclosed period on a decision taken by the press court of Teheran. The Culture and Islamic Orientation Ministry recently asked the newspaper’s management not to publish cartoons considered “insults and attacks against top-ranking officials and institutions”.
RSF has registered twenty predators of press freedom around the world who now act ruthlessly: Mohammed Omar Akhunzada [Afghanistan], Eduardo Santos [Angola], Fahd el-Saoud [Saudi Arabia], Alexandre Loukachenko [Belarus], Than Shwe [Burma], Jiang Zemin [China], Kim Jong-il [North Korea], Fidel Castro [Cuba], Méles Zenawi [Ethiopia], Saddam Hussein [Iraq], Ali Khamenei [Iran], Mou’ammar Kadhafi [Libya], Islam Karimov [Uzbekistan], Laurent-Désiré Kabila [Democratic Republic of Congo], Paul Kagame [Rwanda], Bachar el-Assad [Syria], Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali [Tunisia], Sapamurat Niyazov [Turkmenistan], Le Kha Phieu [Vietnam] and Slobodan Milosevic [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia].
