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THE
HAZARDS OF IRANIAN JOURNALISM
Iran commemorated
Journalists Day on 8 August, which is the anniversary of the 1998
killing of an IRNA correspondent by Taliban forces at Mazar-i-Sharif,
Afghanistan (see below).
RFE/RL- Meanwhile,
Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance Hojatoleslam Ahmad Masjid-Jamei
wrote to Labor and Social Affairs Minister Safdar Husseini, urging
President Khatami to designate journalism as a "difficult and
hazardous job," "Iran Daily" reported on 5 August.
Masjid-Jamei noted that the sensitivity of the profession "mentally
and physically inconveniences journalists."
Press closures
and frequent court appearances might be considered an inconvenience
or a hazard, too -- even the official news agency is facing legal
harassment. At a ceremony in Kurdistan Province to mark Journalist's
Day, Mehrnush Jafari, director-general of the Islamic Culture and
Guidance Ministry's Domestic Press Department, said that 85 publications
have been banned since March 1998, "Entekhab" reported
on 11 August.
A Tehran court
on 8 August ordered the closure of the daily "Aineh-yi Jonub,"
which had hit the newsstands just one week earlier, for publishing
articles that are "contrary to the law," IRNA reported.
It also banned "Ruz-i No," which was to begin publication
next week.
Judge Said Mortazavi
explained: "According to statements published in the press,
which have explicitly cited 'Ruz-I No' as a replacement for 'Noruz'...and
given the similarity between the two in name and logo, the publication
of 'Ruz-i No' is considered as contradicting the press law until
the six-month suspension of the daily 'Noruz' expires," according
to IRNA. A complaint has been lodged against the "Ruz-i No"
managing editor, Tehran parliamentarian Mohammad Naimipur. Journalist
Hashem Aghajari, who recently stirred up a hornet's nest after questioning
the religious hierarchy (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 1 July
2002), was detained in Hamedan after coming to the court to be interrogated,
IRNA reported on 8 August. He was previously subpoenaed for violating
religious sanctities (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 8 July
2002). Aghajari's hearing is scheduled for 31 August. The Mujahedin
of the Islamic Revolution Organization, of which Aghajari is a member,
protested the arrest in a 10 August communique that it cabled to
IRNA.
The Press Court
on 5 August found "Guzarish-i Ruz" managing director Ali
Mohammad Mahdavi-Khorrami guilty on charges brought against him
by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the Law Enforcement Forces'
intelligence office, the prosecutor-general and Abdolhamid Mohtasham,
the managing director of the hard-line weekly "Yalisarat al-Hussein,"
according to IRNA. The court decided against leniency because Mahdavi-Khorrami
has a record of press offenses and absence from court sessions.
His sentence has not yet been announced. An arrest warrant was issued
for journalist Masud Behnud, who in February 2001 was sentenced
to 19 months in jail, "Iran" newspaper reported on 5 August.
Behnud is out of the country, and Mehrabad Airport officials have
been instructed to keep an eye out for him.
A Tehran court
summoned "Aftab-i Yazd" managing editor Mansur Mozaffari
to appear by 6 August, IRNA reported on 4 August. He faces 36 complaints
from the state prosecutor and the State Inspectorate. The Revolutionary
Court on 7 August said that it had the right to take legal action
against the government's Islamic Republic News Agency, for reporting
on the Freedom Movement's (Nehzat-i Azadi) rejection of its dissolution
(see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 5 August 2002). The court asked
why IRNA does not relay statements from "other counterrevolutionary
groups." IRNA responded on 7 August that Islamic Republic of
Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) aired the same dispatch, and went on to
say that IRNA had the right to transmit the news so that the nation
and foreigners would not have to rely on foreign media.
"Hambastegi"
deputy editor Rahmanqoli Qolizadeh notes that the press is being
asked to promote national reconciliation because Iran is threatened
with invasion, "Hambastegi" reported on 31 July. In the
report, Qolizadeh asks, "Is there anything left of the press
that it can play this role," noting that the public no longer
trusts the press. According to Qolizadeh, if the press is allowed
to function, it would be "very formal and artificial"
and would not be accepted "either by our people at home or
by others abroad."
AND WILL DISCUSS
MURDERED JOURNALIST, OFFICIALS
Iranian government
spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh on 7 August said that one of the
topics of discussion during President Khatami's visit to Kabul would
be the case of the Iranian government officials and an IRNA reporter
who were killed by the Taliban in Mazar-i-Sharif in August 1998,
according to IRNA.
Taliban commander
Mullah Wali, who is suspected of being responsible for the murders,
was detained in Herat in early December, an anonymous "informed
source" told IRNA on 27 December 2001. The source told IRNA
at the time that Mullah Wali was being held at a prison in western
Herat. If Mullah Wali is indeed in custody, it is odd that Herat's
Governor Ismail Khan, who is close to the Iranian government, has
not made this suspect available to the Iranians.
Tehran claims
that the officials were diplomats, but many observers believe that
they actually were intelligence officers. The brother of Mohammad
Saremi, the IRNA reporter who was murdered in Mazar-i-Sharif, told
RFE/RL's Persian Service that the Iranian government does not seem
very interested in solving the case, and he speculated that the
government does not want the case to be examined too closely because
of what might be revealed about the Iranian officials. Saremi compared
his brother's case to that of "The Wall Street Journal"
reporter Daniel Pearl, who was murdered in Pakistan. Saremi pointed
out that the U.S. authorities made every effort to bring the culprits
to justice. Saremi's brother said that his family wrote a letter
to Afghan President Karzai, and Saremi even handed a letter to UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he visited Tehran, but still there
have been no results. Iran's minister of Islamic culture and guidance,
Hojatoleslam Ahmad Masjid-Jamei, sent a letter to Afghanistan's
Minister of Information and Culture Raheen Makhdoom asking that
the killers be identified and punished, Mashhad radio's Dari-language
service reported on 4 August. On the anniversary of the killings
- 7 August -- Makhdoom said: "This tragic incident took place
at a time when the holy city of Mazar-i-Sharif was captured by the
forces of evil. The martyrdom of the diplomats and the innocent
Iranian journalist was against all Islamic and human norms,"
Kabul's Radio Afghanistan reported. (Bill Samii)
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