(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 7 April and 3 April 1999** Paris, 9 April 1999 For immediate release WAN Asks Iran to Lift Ban on Newspaper The World Association of Newspapers has asked the Iranian government to lift its ban on the moderate newspaper Zan, which was […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 7 April and 3 April 1999**
Paris, 9 April 1999
For immediate release
WAN Asks Iran to Lift Ban on Newspaper
The World Association of Newspapers has asked the Iranian government to lift
its ban on the moderate newspaper Zan, which was ordered to cease
publication after it published a statement by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s
widow, Farah Dibah, and a cartoon satirizing Islamic laws on women.
“Banning a newspaper to silence alternative opinion is an abuse of power, in
direct contradiction to all international conventions,” the Paris-based WAN
said in a letter to President Mohammad Khatami.
“We urge you to use your influence to ensure that the Revolutionary Court
ban on Zan is lifted, and that the journalists of this courageous and well
respected newspaper may return to work unharassed,” said the letter, signed
by WAN President Bengt Braun.
Zan (Woman), edited by Faeze Hashemi, daughter of former President
Rafsanjani, is one of the principal supporters of Khatami and his reform
efforts. It was ordered to cease publication on Tuesday by the Teheran
Revolutionary Courts, the third time it has been shut down since its
inception in June 1998. Ms Hashemi has twice been summoned to court on
charges of publishing “false news.”
WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and
promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 15,000 newspapers; its
membership includes 58 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper
executives in 90 countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional press
groups.
