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RSF-Iran
annual Report 2002
By RSF (Reporters Sans Frontières/reporter without borders)
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=1438
Surface area : 1,648,000 sq. km.
Population : 70,330,000
Language : Persian (off.)
Type of State : Islamic republic
Head of State : Ali Khamenei
President of the republic, head of government : Mohammad Khatami
Iran Annual Report 2002
With 18 journalists
behind bars, Iran is the biggest jail for journalists in the Middle
East. Hopes placed in Mohammed Khatami have been frustrated. The
president, re-elected in the spring, has been unable to counter
the conservatives' offensive against the media. At the end of the
year the scope of that offensive was extended to include the Internet
and satellite dishes.
On 1 January
2002 Iran held a sad record in the Middle East, with 18 media professionals
behind bars - almost twice as many as in 2000. After their defeat
in the February 2000 parliamentary elections, the conservatives
launched a large-scale offensive against the press, including a
liberticidal press law passed on 17 April.
In 2001 parliament
was unable to revoke the law since the Guide of the Republic, Ayatollah
Khamenei, did everything in his power to ensure that amendments
were blocked. The casualties have been heavy. According to the deputy
minister of culture and Islamic guidance, 56 publications, including
24 dailies, have been closed since March 2000 - without counting
the student press. Dozens of journalists have been arrested and
prosecuted on charges such as "anti-Islamic propaganda",
"spreading false news" and "insulting Islam",
among others.
In June 2001
the families of many political prisoners - including several journalists
- called for the intervention of Ayatollah Khamenei, President Khatami
and international organisations in favour of detainees. The wife
of a jailed journalist pointed out that these arrests were "illegal"
and that prisoners had "no opportunity to defend themselves".
Apart from the
arbitrary nature of these detentions, many prisoners' families have
complained about their conditions of detention : lack of care, refusal
of visits, psychological pressure, and so on. Most of these detentions
were ordered by Judge Mortazavi, president of Court N° 1410,
the so-called "press court" acting under the orders of
Abasali Alizadeh, the all-powerful head of the judiciary in Tehran,
charged by the Guide of the Republic to "put an end to press
freedom".
In late December,
on the occasion of a lecture by Mohammad Khatami at Tehran University,
the press called on the president to take a stand. "Khatami
must clearly say what problems are facing reform", wrote the
daily Hayat-é-No, adding that the president's speech came
at a time "when the opponents of reform are trying to block
everything" in the country. The next day the head of state
admitted that "his powers were limited" due to the constitutional
primacy of the Supreme Guide.
Despite the
absence of support from certain political personalities considered
to be reformers, and attacks by the conservatives, the press has
not thrown in the sponge. With the support of public opinion, new
newspapers have been created and debate on the future of reform
continues.
For the past
few years Iranians and especially the youth have discovered satellite
television and the Internet. But here again, hardliners have been
quick to attack. In May 400 cybercafes were closed in Tehran and
in October at least 1,000 satellite dishes (theoretically forbidden)
were confiscated. This measure aimed partly to prevent access to
foreign channels and especially opposition channels based in the
United States. Lastly, in November the High Council of the Cultural
Revolution, a body headed by President Mohammad Khatami but dominated
by the conservatives, decreed that all private companies providing
access to the Internet had to dismantle their equipment or transfer
it to the public sector. This decree was enforced at the end of
the year.
New information
on journalists killed before 2001
The murders
of intellectuals and opponents in November and December 1998 - Darioush
and Parvaneh Farouhar, emblematic figures of the liberal opposition,
Majid Charif, editorialist for the monthly Iran-é-Farda,
writer-journalists Mohamad Mokhtari and Mohamad Jafar Pouyandeh
- triggered the mobilisation of a large part of the reformist press.
The authorities consequently set up a commission of inquiry. In
January 1999 the intelligence ministry had officially recognised
the involvement of some of its agents and announced the arrest of
dozens of suspects. It seems that Pirouz Davani, editor-in-chief
of Pirouz, who disappeared in late August 1998 but whose body was
never found, can be added to the victims.
In January 2001,
in connection with the inquiry into the murder of the Forouhar couple,
15 agents of the intelligence ministry were sentenced : three to
death and 12 to imprisonment. Three other persons suspected of being
involved were acquitted. The case was referred to the supreme court
which, on 1 January 2002, had still not passed judgement. The victims'
families complained that the people who had ordered the murders
had not been prosecuted.
Thirty-three
journalists jailed
On 1 January
2002, 28 journalists were behind bars in Iran.
During the year
dozens of others also spent time in detention, sometimes for many
months, without trial.
Abdollah Nouri,
managing editor of the daily Khordad, was arrested on 27 November
1999. The special religious court sentenced him on the same day
to five years in jail and a fine of 15 million rials (about 8,000
euros), and ordered the closure of his daily. Abdollah Nouri was
found guilty on 15 counts, including "anti-religious propaganda",
"insults against Imam Khomeyni", "destabilisation
of public opinion" and "relations with the United States".
Akbar Ganji,
journalist with the daily Sobh-é-Emrouz, was arrested on
22 April 2000 after a press court hearing. The journalist was prosecuted
for his disclosures on the murders of opponents and intellectuals
at the end of 1998, and for his articles in favour of Ayatollah
Hossein-Ali Montazeri, under house arrest since 1989. Akbar Ganji
was also accused of participating in the Berlin conference on reform
in Iran, judged anti-Islamic by the country's authorities. During
a court hearing the journalist said he had been tortured in jail.
On 13 January
2001 he was sentenced to ten years in jail. In May, on appeal, his
sentence was reduced to six months. However, on 15 July the supreme
court quashed the judgement under the pretext of irregularities
in the appeal procedure. The journalist's sentence was increased
to six years. In December he was allowed out for five days.
Khalil Rostamkhani,
journalist with Daily News and Iran Echo, was arrested in May 2000.
He appeared on 9 November in the Tehran revolutionary court where
the prosecutor accused him of being a "mohareb" (fighter
against God), of "receiving and distributing leaflets and communiqués
by opposition groups based abroad, and participating in the organisation
of the Berlin conference which was prejudicial to state security",
and called for the death sentence. The journalist was released on
bail on 16 November. On 13 January 2001 he was sentenced to nine
years in jail. He remained free until 25 August when he was sentenced,
on appeal, to eight years in jail. He was first detained in Evine
prison in Tehran before being transferred, on 11 October, to Bandar
Abbas prison in southern Iran.
On 29 May 2000
Emadoldin Baghi, journalist with the daily Fath, was arrested after
a press court hearing. He was sentenced on 17 July to five and a
half years' imprisonment for "betrayal of national security"
and "spreading false news". The journalist was accused
of defending a modern view of Islam regarding the death sentence,
in an editorial in Neshat in September 1999. The Guardians of the
Revolution (Pasdarans) and a former intelligence minister had filed
a complaint against the journalist. His sentence was reduced to
three years' imprisonment on 23 October. The managing editor of
Iran-é-Farda, Ezatollah Sahabi, was arrested on 26 June 2000
on orders of the Tehran revolutionary court after he had participated
in the Berlin conference. Ezatollah Sahabi was summoned to appear
in court on 30 April, after his return from Germany.
On 21 August
he was released on bail but was arrested again on 17 December and
accused of "anti-government propaganda", primarily because
of a lecture he gave in November 2000 at Amir-Kabir technical university
in Tehran. On 13 January 2001 he was sentenced to four and a half
years in jail. After visiting him in jail in February, his family
said they were "shocked" by the physical and psychological
state of the 75-year-old journalist who was not even able to recognise
them. In December his sentence was reduced to six months but he
was not released.
Hassan Youssefi
Echkevari, theologian and contributor to the monthly Iran-é-Farda,
was detained in Evine prison in Tehran on 5 August 2000, after a
search at his home. In April he had travelled to Europe to participate
in the Berlin conference and receive treatment for diabetes. During
his trial in camera in the special clerical court, from 7 to 15
October, he was accused of "subversive activities against national
security", of "libel against the authorities", of
"undermining the clergy's prestige" and of being a "mohareb"
(fighter against God). On 1 January 2002 the verdict had still not
been made public although Hassan Youssefi Echkevari's son was informed
by a judge that his father had been sentenced to two years in jail.
One of the editors
of the banned magazine Iran-é-Farda, Hoda Saber, was jailed
on 28 January 2001. His wife said she was not aware of the reasons
for this arrest. In July his sister, Firouzeh Saber, was detained
for a few days for "refusing to collaborate" with the
courts.
On orders of
Judge Said Mortazavi, Mohammad-Bagher Vali-Beik, managing director
of the company Jamée-é-Rouz, was arrested on 12 February
and jailed in Tehran. Jamée-é-Rouz is a major publishing
company founded after the election of President Mohammad Khatami,
which for the previous three years had published most reformist
publications now suspended. He was released on 21 February. Fariba
Davoudi-Mohadjer, journalist with the dailies Fath and Khordad,
was arrested on 15 February and incarcerated in Tehran on orders
of the revolutionary court. The journalist was arrested after a
long search at her home by several policemen who confiscated her
articles, a book on Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri (former successor
designated then disgraced by Imam Khomeyni) and communiqués
of a student movement. She was released on 12 March. Security agents
arrested Reza Alijani, editor-in-chief of the suspended monthly
Iran-é-Farda, on 24 February and took him to his home which
had been searched. He was then imprisoned on orders of the revolutionary
court, without any explanation. The journalist was detained for
200 days in solitary confinement before being transferred, in October,
to a cell with two other journalists. His lawyer was refused permission
to see either his client or his file. Reza Alijani is one of the
rare journalists who, in interviews with foreign radio stations
and articles in the national and international press, dared to defend
press freedom in Iran. In an interview in 1999 with the daily Arya,
he mentioned, for the first time in Iran, the murders in 1989 of
thousands of prisoners by the authorities. The journalist, Reporters
Without Borders-Fondation de France prizewinner in 2001, was released
on bail on 16 December.
On the evening
of 11 March agents of the judiciary organised a raid on the home
of Mohammad Bastehnaghar - one of the progressive opposition leaders,
writer and contributor to Asr-é-Azadegan - at which about
30 persons were gathered. Taghi Rahmani from the banned weekly Omid-é-Zangan,
Hossin Rafai and Saide Mandani from the suspended monthly Iran-é-Farda,
Ali-Reza Redjai from Asr-é-Azadegan, and Morteza Khazemian
and Reza Rais-Toussi from the suspended daily Fath were all arrested,
along with Mohammad Bastehnaghar. The next day the president of
the Tehran revolutionary courts said that the persons arrested "were
trying to foment a plot against the Islamic regime". Hossin
Rafai was released on 11 August, Ali-Reza Redjai on 22 August, Morteza
Khazamian on 6 October and Mohammad Bastehnaghar on 3 September.
However, Taghi Rahmani, Saide Madani and Reza Rais-Toussi (who has
had major health problems) are still in jail. In December a justice
ministry official said to Taghi Rahmani's wife, Narghes Mohamadi
: "If we'd killed your husband in the 1980s he wouldn't be
giving us problems now".
About 40 people
were arrested on 7 April and placed in police custody. Among them,
Reza Tehrani, editor-in-chief of the suspended magazine Kian, and
Fazlollah Salavati, editor-in-chief of the suspended Ispahan weekly
Navid-é-Esfahan, were accused of "collaborating with
counter-revolutionary groups". The persons arrested were all
close to the MLI, the Movement for the Liberation of Iran, a progressive
Islamist party banned in March. On 17 April Fazlollah Salavati was
released on bail. Reza Tehrani is still detained.
Student leader
Hechmatollah Tabarzadi, with Hoviat-é-Khich, was arrested
on 17 April and released on bail on 29 October without being tried.After
seven hours of questioning on 21 April the judge of the Tehran press
court ordered the detention of Amid Naini, editor-in-chief of the
suspended monthly Peyam-é-Emrouz. The court accused the journalist
of publishing an article denouncing the recitation of Koranic verses
as "a practice based on superstition", and another describing
the angel Gabriel - who, according to Islam, dictated the Koran
to the prophet Mahomet - as an "imaginary creature". He
was released on 11 July. Mohammed Javad Akbarian, of Sobh-é-Emrouz,
was arrested on 21 April. He was sentenced to one year in jail on
19 November but released without serving his entire sentence.
Hamid Jafari-Nasrabadi
and Mahmoud Mojdayi, respectively managing editor and journalist
of the student magazine Kavir, were detained in Tehran on 9 May
after several hours of questioning by a press court judge. They
were accused of publishing an article judged "blasphemous"
and "indecent". The court also ordered the suspension
of the magazine. In early December the two men were sentenced to
five and three years in jail, respectively.
Two journalists
with the student magazine Kavir, Reza Nadimi and Mehdi Aminizadeh,
were released on bail on 28 May after appearing in the Tehran court.
They were accused of publishing a "blasphemous" and "indecent"
article. Mehdi Aminizadeh was released on 9 June. Reza Nadimi is
still behind bars. On 25 June, after "complaints by several
cultural and Islamic associations" at Yazd University in central
Iran, Ali Fallah and Babak Ghani-Pour, on the editorial staff of
the magazine Arman published at the university, were arrested.
Morteza Taghi-Pour,
Rouzbeh Chafii and Mohammad-Reza Chirvand, with the student magazine
Faryad, were detained on 30 June and released on 22 August. On 10
November the clerical court ordered the arrest of Issa Khandan,
society desk editor for two dailies, Khordad and Fath. His wife
said she did not know why the journalist, who was refused all visits,
had been arrested.
Siamak Pourzand,
who contributed to Iranian opposition radio stations based in the
United States, was arrested on 24 November. His arrest could be
related to his position as director of Majmue-ye Farrhangi-ye Honari-ye
Tehran, a cultural centre where he received artists, intellectuals
and writers. Siamak Pourzand is well-known for his hostile articles
on the Islamist regime. He is married to Mehrangiz Kar, a human
rights lawyer jailed for two months in 2000 and sentenced in January
2001 to four years' imprisonment. In December her sentence was commuted
to a fine. According to certain conservative newspapers, the journalist
admitted to having relations with the United States after receiving
money from abroad and distributing it to pro-reform journalists.
Late in December Mohsen Mirdamadi, managing editor of Noroz and
president of the parliamentary security commission said, with reference
to the arrest of Siamak Pourzand and the murders of intellectuals
in late 1998, that "far from being dismantled", the group
of "murderers" was "in the process of being built
up again".
Five journalists
arrested before 2001 were released.
Morteza Firouzi,
editor-in-chief of Iran News, was arrested in May 1997. After a
trial held in camera in January 1998 he was sentenced to death for
"adultery" and "espionage". On 3 June 1998 the
supreme court quashed the death sentence and referred the case to
the court of first instance. The journalist was released on 8 July
2001.
The editor-in-chief
of the daily Neshat, Machallah Chamsolvaezine, was arrested on 10
April 2000. He had been sentenced in a first trial, in November
1999, to three years in jail and a fine of 12 million rials (about
6,500 euros). On 9 August the supreme court found the journalist
guilty of "insulting Islam" but commuted his sentence
to two and a half years in jail. The journalist was pardoned and
released on 12 September 2001.
The managing
editor of the reformist daily Neshat, Latif Safari, was jailed on
23 April 2000. After being sentenced by the press court in November
1999 to two and a half years in jail and banned from all journalistic
activity, he appealed. Neshat had been banned in September 1999
for defending a modern view of Islam regarding the death sentence.
He was released on 21 July 2001.
Ahmad Zeid-Abadi,
journalist with the daily Hamchahri and the weekly Iran-é-Farda,
was arrested at his home on 7 August 2000 by about 12 civil plainclothes
policemen. He was accused of "insulting the Guide of the Islamic
Republic", Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "publicly insulting"
its founder, Imam Khomeyni, and "anti-Islamic propaganda".
In February 2001 he went on a hunger strike in protest against his
conditions of detention. Ahmad Zeid-Abadi was released on 8 March
after paying a very big amount in bail.
On 30 December
2000 the hodjatoleslam (a religious title) Ali Afsahi, editor-in-chief
of the cultural and sports magazine Cinama-Varzech, was sentenced
to four months in jail by the special clerical court. The cleric,
who was arrested at the end of the trial, was sentenced for "insulting
and libelling the clergy". Considered as a specialist on the
cinema, he was charged because of a speech he gave in Bouchehr,
in southern Iran, on the Iranian cinema. He was released late in
April, after serving his sentence.
Four journalists
arrested
Naghi Afchari,
managing editor of the weekly Hadis in Ghazvin in western Iran,
was arrested on 27 January 2001 and incarcerated. He was accused
of "criticising the judicial authorities" and publishing
an "insulting" cartoon on the judiciary. His weekly was
suspended on the same day. The journalist was released two days
later. Abbas Dalvand, managing editor of the magazine Lorestan,
was arrested on 14 February and jailed in the western town of Khorammabad.
He was accused of "libel", "publishing lies"
and "insulting judicial and revolutionary institutions"
of the government. He was released on 16 February. On 9 May the
journalist was charged with "publishing insults and lies"
against several state institutions, sentenced to nine months in
jail and banned from practising journalism for three years. Abbas
Dalvand, who appealed, is still free.
Narghues Mohammadi,
journalist for Peyam Ajar, a weekly suspended since April 2000,
was arrested on 28 August after appearing in the Tehran revolutionary
court as a "witness". Highly active in the movement to
free political prisoners in Iran, Narghues Mohammadi is a member
of the editorial committee of Peyam Ajar and of the Iranian journalist's
association, close to President Khatami.
Ali Hamed Imam,
managing editor of the reformist weekly Shams-é-Tabrizi,
published in the north-western town of Tabriz, was detained on 17
December after appearing in court. The journalist was accused on
17 counts, including "insulting religion" and "publication
of untrue and libellous articles". He was released on bail
the next day.
Pressure and
obstruction
The press court
sentenced Ibrahim Nabavi on 10 January 2001 to eight months in jail
for "publishing lies, insults against government officials
and unfounded accusations". This contributor to the now banned
reformist newspapers Tous and Jameh was arrested on 12 August then
released on bail on 18 November 2000. The day of his arrest he had
received a prize for the best political humorist.
On 17 January
the reformist monthly Kiyan was banned. Judge Said Mortazavi, president
of the press court, said that the magazine had "published lies
likely to disturb public order".
During the night
of 2 to 3 February Geneive Abdo, journalist with The Guardian and
The International Herald Tribune, and her husband Jonathan Lyons,
manager of the Reuters agency in Tehran, were expelled from Iran.
According to Geneive Abdo, they were threatened with prosecution
for breaking a law which the Iranian authorities say prohibits interviews
with political prisoners. On 23 January The International Herald
Tribune had published an interview with Akbar Ganji, a journalist
jailed for ten years. In this interview the journalist had suggested
"a possible kickback against the conservative [Iranian] establishment".
The director general of the foreign press, Mohammad-Reza Khochvaght,
explained that "these two journalists contravened rules and
a code of conduct and misquoted Akbar Ganji". On 4 February
the culture ministry announced that the manager of Reuters, Jonathan
Lyons, "will not be authorised to return to Tehran".
Davoud Allah-Verdi,
Daryoush Imani and Mohammad Bazgir, journalists with Ruzdara, a
daily in the Zahedan region in south-eastern Iran, were sentenced
to jail on 24 February by the revolutionary court for periods ranging
from three months and seven days to five and a half months, for
a libellous article. The same court ordered the suspension of the
daily which had already been closed for several weeks from August
2000. The three journalists, who appealed, were not incarcerated.
The courts ordered
the suspension of the conservative political weekly Harim on 8 March
for "libel" against President Mohammad Khatami. In an
article headed "Mr. Khatami's slogan", the weekly mocked
the president who, during the 1997 election campaign, "had
promised to establish the rule of law and civil society in Iran".
On 11 March
Mohammad Hassan Alipour, managing editor of the banned weekly Aban,
was given a six-month suspended jail sentence and banned from practising
journalism for five years. He was accused, among other things, of
"spreading lies likely to disturb public opinion". The
journalist appealed.
The daily Dorran-é-Emrouz,
the two weeklies Mobine and Jamée-Madani, and the monthly
Peyam-é-Emrouz, were suspended on 18 March on orders of the
judiciary. An official in the judiciary affirmed that the suspension
of Peyam-é-Emrouz had been decided because of the "multiple
offences" and "complaints" against the newspaper,
known to be hostile to the conservatives.
Amin-é-Zanjan,
a weekly in the western province of Zanjan, was banned on 25 April
for publishing articles likely to "cause riots in the town".
The reformist
daily Nosazi was suspended on 9 May, four days after its first issue.
The Tehran court explained that the managing editor, Hamid-Reza
Jalai-Pour, was not "competent" to edit the daily. He
was also accused, as manager of the publishing company Jamée-é-Rouz
- which distributed the now banned reformist publications Neshat,
Asr-é-Azadegan and Akhbar-é-Eghtessadi - of publishing
"criminal" articles.
From 8 to 13
May about 400 cybercafes were closed in Tehran. The Iranian authorities
gave cybercafes an ultimatum to obtain "a work permit and an
Internet operating licence" quickly. In case of non-approval
by the union of users of administrative machines and computers,
a conservative-run body, the police could intervene to close the
establishment. After the election of Mohammed Khatami as President
of the Islamic Republic in 1997, hundreds of cybercafes opened in
Tehran. The Internet is controlled at several levels in Iran. First,
the intelligence ministry controls the state access provider Data
Communication company of Iran (DCI). The DCI then screens (or tries
to) pornographic sites and the sites of opposition movements based
within the country or abroad. Lastly, private access providers,
who have to be approved by the intelligence and Islamic guidance
ministries, also have a system to screen sites and e-mail. Every
Iranian Internet user is supposed to sign a document when s/he logs
on, in which s/he undertakes not to visit "non-Islamic"
sites.
A journalist
with the weekly Asr-é-ma, Hamid-Reza Kaviani, disappeared
on 21 May in the middle of Tehran. He was released a few hours later.
The journalist had already been kidnapped for a few hours once before,
on 15 April, by unidentified individuals. He was so badly treated
by his abductors that he had to be hospitalised, in a serious condition.
Arman, the student
magazine at Yazd University, was suspended and closed on 26 June.
It was accused of being the work of "unspecified" Islamic
and cultural groups in Iran.
The reformist
weekly Farday-é-Rochan had its licence withdrawn on 4 August
for "publishing articles which were untrue, libellous and counter
to public morals". Davood Bayat, managing editor, was ordered
to pay a fine of 4.5 million rials (2,400 euros) for "publishing
lies and insults". In the previous week the licence of the
reformist daily Fath had been definitively withdrawn. This newspaper
had been sentenced in April 2000 to six months' suspension.
On 8 August
the reformist weekly Hambastaghi was suspended as a "preventive
measure", according to the justice ministry. The publication
was also charged with publishing articles that were "untrue,
libellous and hostile to the regime". At the same time, the
intelligence minister asked Gholamheidar Ebrahimbay Salami, managing
editor, for the name of the author of the incriminating articles.
The journalist was questioned for several days by agents from the
ministry. The weekly was allowed to reappear on 20 August.
The reformist
weekly Mehr, edited by the hodjatoleslam Mohammad-Ali Zam, was suspended
on 8 September following complaints about the publication of "lies"
and "insults". The origin of the complaints is unknown.
On 10 September
the Iranian appeal court upheld the suspension of three very popular
newspapers. Tous, Neshat and Asr-é-Azadégan had been
banned in September 1998, September 1999 and April 2000, respectively.
On 10 September
the Iranian appeal court upheld the verdict concerning Massoud Behnoud,
contributor to Adineh, Neshat and Asr-é-Azadegan, who remained
free after being sentenced to 19 months in jail and a fine of 5,703,750
Iranian rials (3,596 euros). The journalist had been arrested on
9 August 2000 after over 50 complaints were filed against him, some
of them by the state prosecutor and the extremist group Ansar-Hezbollah.
Some of these complaints concerned articles that he had written
in the monthly Adineh, suspended in 1998. Massoud Behnoud also participated
in programmes in Persian on foreign radio stations such as the BBC
and Voice of America. He was released on bail on 16 December 2000.
The Qom court
decided on 22 September to suspend the weekly Rahian-Feyzieh for
"lack of respect for the Iranian president Mohammad Khatami
and the former culture minister Ataollah Mohadjerani".
On 12 October
the penal court in Qazvin sentenced Fatemeh Govarai, journalist
for Omid-é-Zangan and Peyam Ajar, on appeal, to six months'
imprisonment and 50 lashes for "publication of lies and libel".
The journalist, close to opposition movements, had been interviewed
by the newspaper Vlayat, in which she denounced the presence of
"pressure groups" during a legal gathering of Mr. Yazdi,
leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Iran in the northern
town of Gazvin. Fatemeh Govarai appealed. The journalist had been
arrested on 11 March 2001 during a raid on the home of Mohammad
Bastehnaghar, then released the next day. An Iranian court ordered
the suspension of the reformist weekly Amin-é-Zanjan on 30
October and sentenced Jafar Karami, its managing editor, to 91 days
in jail. The reasons given were the publication of articles "insulting
to the most senior officials and the Islamic regime", and incitement
"to dissension between the different classes of the population".
The sentence was eventually commuted to two years, suspended, in
view of the mutilations the journalist had received during the Iran-Iraq
war.
Late in October
at least 1,000 satellite dishes were confiscated and 70 people arrested,
either because they owned one or because they installed them. These
measures were intended to ban access to foreign channels, especially
opposition channels based in the United States. These channels had
broadcast images of demonstrations after football matches, which
allegedly exacerbated the participants' violence. In 1995 the Iranian
parliament promulgated a law banning satellite dishes in an attempt
to "cleanse" Iran of Western influences. This law is not,
however, strictly obeyed. Iranians conceal satellite dishes under
canvas sheets or disguise them in air conditioning systems.
The financial
daily Akhbar-é-Eghtessadi was banned on 27 November. Said
Mortazavi, presiding judge of the press court, stipulated that according
to the law the newspaper, published in 1997 and 1998 under the names
Akhbar then Akhbar-é-Eghtessadi, had already been banned
by a court and could not reappear. The daily had been suspended
in 2000 but was subsequently allowed to appear again.
An Iranian court
sentenced Abbas Ershad, editor-in-chief of the reformist weekly
Amin-é-Zanjan, on 9 December to 30 lashes and a fine of several
hundred euros, and banned him from practising journalism. The journalist
was charged with "insulting the justice department" of
the town of Zanjan in western Iran. He appealed.
Neda-yé-Hormozgan,
a reformist weekly published in the southern province of Hormozgan,
was suspended on 12 December and its managing editor, Gholam-Hossein
Ataiee, sentenced to five years in jail, suspended. Mohammad Salamati,
managing editor of the reformist weekly Asr-é-Ma, was sentenced
on 15 December to 26 months in jail. His weekly was also suspended.
He was charged with "spreading a rumour" about an attempt
to oust President Khatami. The journalist has appealed.
On 22 December
the authorities of Ferdossi de Machad University in north-eastern
Iran ordered the definitive closure of the student magazine Nazar,
close to the reformists and edited by Javad Seifi Abdolabad. The
reasons for this measure are unknown. According to the magazine,
the editor's "file" was handed over to the university's
disciplinary committee.
Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Guide of the Islamic Republic, has been denounced as a
predator of press freedom by Reporters Without Borders.
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