Back to News

www.hrw.org
I R A N H U M A N R I G H T S C H R O N I C L E
an IHRWG digest of Human Rights in Iran

Vol. 2, No. 4, August 2000

Freedom of Expression
In the May 2000 issue of the Chronicle we reported on a severe crackdown on the press and freedom of expression, which included the imprisonment of numerous journalists and human rights activists. That trend continued in the past three months, as illustrated by the following chronology of events:

* 1 June: Shirin Ebadi resigned as the lawyer for Ms. Mehrangiz Kar to protest the fact that the authorities did not allow her to meet her client. Ms. Kar had been arrested and imprisoned for participating in a conference in Berlin (see May 2000 issue of Chronicle).

* 6 June: Mohammad Reza Khatami, member of parliament and brother of President Khatami, called on authorities to "ban inspection of letters in post offices, other forms of surveillance and monitoring (telephone) conversations as well as censorship."

* 7 June: Five members of the student group Office for Fostering Unity were summoned by courts and released only after signing "pledges not to take part in protest rallies and demonstrations." The United Students' Front also stated that several of its members had been interrogated for the same reasons. It added that "some questions (raised during interrogations) amounted to an inquisition into the faith and beliefs" of the students.

* 11 June: 'Hayat-e No' newspaper, published by Hadi Khamenei, brother of the Supreme Leader, began publication.

* 15 June: Alireza Khoshandam, Managing Director of the Gofteman Khallaq Publishing House, was arrested and sent to prison. The charges against him included insults to the Islamic sanctities and the Velayat-e Faqih (supreme religious jurisprudence) during his campaign as a candidate for parliament in the Spring.

* 16 June: Six film magazines, Hodhod, Shakhess, Afkar, Rokhsat Pahlevan, Millad and Khavaran, received warnings from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for publishing pictures of pre-revolutionary actors.

* 17 June: Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, Secretary General of the Islamic Union of University Students and Graduates, was arrested after a five hour interrogation by the Tehran Revolutionary Court. Tabarzadi was also Editor-in-Chief of Gozaresh-e rouz, one of the publications shut down last April. A day later, Hamid Alizadeh, another student activist, was also arrested.

* 21 June: Mehrangiz Kar and Shahla Lahiji were released from prison on bail. Ali Afshari, a student activist, was released on bail four days later.

* 25 June: The newspaper 'Bayan' was shut down.

* 26 June: Opposition politician Ezatollah Sahabi was imprisoned on charges stemming from his participation in the Berlin conference. On July 2, 276 political figures and academics signed a letter denouncing his arrest and calling for his immediate release.

* 27 June: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged the judiciary chief, Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahrudi, not to yield to pressure for greater press freedom. This came after 151 newly elected members of the parliament had written to Shahrudi to put an end to newspaper closedowns, and five days after President Khatami had protested to the judiciary regarding the newspaper closures. The next day, Shahrudi wrote a letter to the parliamentarians, rejecting their call to put an end to newspaper closings. We point out that the severe crackdown on the press that started last April came after the Supreme Leader had attacked the press in a sermon.

* 28 June: Lawyers Mohsen Rahami and Shirin Ebadi were arrested and imprisoned for making and distributing a videotape recording of an interview with Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a former member of the Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilante group. In that interview, Ebrahimi had stated that they were given missions by high ranking government officials to disrupt public meetings, and attack and beat up political activists. Five others, Hamid Maraashizadeh (alleged to be a former MKO member), Ali Reza Sarikhani (alleged to be a member of Muslim Fighters group), Mohammad Abol Hassani, Abdollah Shariati, and Mohammad Javad Dehghani-Tafti, were also detained in connection with the videotape recording. Rahami and Ebadi were released on bail on 22 July. The trail of the seven was being held behind closed doors.

* 5 July: The weekly publication 'Cheshmeh', published in Ardebil, was closed down for publishing articles that ridiculed the passion plays (Ta'ziyeh) for Imam Hussein.

* 17 July: Mohsen Kadivar was released from prison after serving an 18 month jail term for political and religious dissent.

* 17 July: Journalist Emadoddin Baghi was sentenced to five and a half years in jail, after being tried behind closed doors. Baghi had questioned the use of the death penalty in Iran. His paper, Fath, was one of the publications closed in the recent crackdown on the press, reported in the May 2000 issue of the Chronicle.

* 25 July: Gholamali Riahi, the defense attorney of jailed journalist Akbar Ganji, was finally allowed to meet with his client, ninety-two days after Ganji had been jailed.

* 25 July: The weekly publication 'Gounagoun' was closed down less than a month after it began publication.

* 27 July: The daily 'Rouzdara', published in Sistan-Balouchistan province, was shut down. 'Rouzdara' had published articles criticizing the management of the economy and government policies.

* 31 July: Journalist Taghi Rahmani was arrested in Shar-e Kord on charges of insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. he was released on bail 24 hours later. Rahmai had been a writer for the 'Iran-e Farda' monthly before it was shut down last April.

* 1 August: Mohammad Reza Zohdi, Director of the (closed down) daily 'Arya', was sentenced to four months in jail on chargres that included "insulting officials and government organizations".

* 1 August: The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance told newspapers to stop publishing satirical caricatures of the leading politicians.

* 5 August: Hassan Youssefi Eshkevari was arrested upon his arrival from an extended overseas trip, which included participation in the Berlin conference. In the conference, Eshkevari, a cleric, had said that women should choose freely if they want to wear the Islamic Hijab (which is currently enforced upon them by the regime).

* 5 August: The 'Tavana' weekly publication was closed down for publishing caricatures of politicians. Editor Iraj Rastegar was charged with insulting government officials.

* 6 August: The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, intervened to suppress a bill aimed at easing press restrictions. The bill had been proposed to remove some of the restrictions that had been imposed by the previous parliament back in April (see May 2000 issue of the Chronicle). Those restrictions had provided a mandate to the judiciary to shut down numerous publications and imprison several journalists. Khamenei directly intervened by calling the proposed bill illegitimate and instructing the parliament leadership to drop it. This led to physical clashes among deputies in the parliament.

* 8 August: The 'Bahar' daily was shut down.

* 9 August: Veteran journalist Masoud Behnoud was arrested on charges of publishing lies. On August 26, the charges were expanded to include possession of drugs and alcohol.

* 9 August: The Supreme Court confirmed a 2.5 year prison sentence that had been passed on journalist Mahallah Shams-ol-Vaezin last November. He had been prosecuted for publishing articles questioning the use of capital punishment. On August 23, it was reported that Shams-ol-Vaezin was placed in solitary confinement.

* 12 August: The press court banned Baghi's book, "The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran", and ordered all copies removed from bookstores.

* 12 August: Parliament banned camera crews from the halls of the legislature.

* 12 August: Ebrahim Nabavi, an award winning satirist, was jailed after being interrogated by the press court.

* 13 August: Mohammad Qouchani, a newspaper columnist, was jailed after being interrogated by the press court.

* 15 August: The Association of Journalists sent a letter to parliament, protesting the harsh treatment of journalists and demanding a stop to the closure of publications.

* 19 August: The weekly publication 'Qesse-ye Zendegi' was banned for "pursuing an improper trend."

* 20 August: Security forces made more than 200 arrests prior to a planned demonstration in Tehran by a previously unknown student group to "denounce dictatorship in Iran". No furhter details were provided.

* 29 August: Lawyer Mohammad-Ali Jedari-Forouqi was arrested after an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) radio station.

* 30 August: The daily 'Arya' was ordered closed for good and its managing director Mohammad-Reza Zohdi was sentenced to serve four months in jail, banned for two years from press activities and fined two million Rials.