DATE=12/23/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=YEARENDER: IRAN PRESS NUMBER=5-45104 BYLINE=HASAN JAVADI DATELINE=WASHINGTON CONTENT= NOT VOICED: INTRO: Toward the end of November, a clerical court in Iran sentenced newspaper editor Abdollah Nouri to five years in prison for publishing articles insulting to Islam and advocating improved relations with the United States. As VOA's Hasan Javadi reports, the trial of Mr. Nouri marked the latest fight in a struggle for press freedom in Iran that dates back to the last century. TEXT: The first newspaper in Iran began publishing in 1851, but it had only a limited audience, as it was meant for the country's royal court. It was not until the 1880s that a press for all Persians began publishing. By the end of the century almost forty newspapers and journals had been published. But also at century's end, an office of censorship had been created, which prompted, not for the last time, some Iranian editors to try to avoid the censors by printing their periodicals outside Iran. Once published, the editors then tried to smuggle them into Iran. The constitutional revolution of 1907 ushered in a period of freedom, but it only lasted a short time. From 1907 to 1909, a new king, Mohammed Ali Shah, was in power, and he severely restricted the country's press. When the king was forced to flee the country, Iran's journalists regained some of the freedom they had lost. In spite of occasional restrictions, in the years before World War I, the press continued to flourish in Iran, with a total of 371 newspapers and journals published, in Persian as well as several other languages, prior to the beginning of the war. But in the early twenties, pressure on the media intensified. In one of the most famous incidents, agents of Reza Shah assassinated the revolutionary poet Eshqi in 1924. Another Iranian who suffered because of his outspoken journalism was Farrokhi Yazdi. In 1909, the governor of the province of Yazd, ordered that his lips be sewn together in punishment for a poem Farrokhi had written about liberty. Later on, during the reign of Reza Shah, Farrokhi was imprisoned for his journalistic writings, but he eventually managed to flee the country and settled in Berlin, from where he sued the government for depriving its citizens of freedom of expression. But he was persuaded by the government to return to Iran and ended his days in prison, where he died in 1939. In 1941, during World War II, allied forces occupied Iran and forced Reza Shah to abdicate because of his pro-Nazi allegiance. With his ouster, Iran enjoyed a period of press freedom that lasted until 1953, when Reza Shah's son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, returned to power in a coup assisted by the U-S Central Intelligence Agency. During the long reign of the shah, which lasted until 1979, press censorship returned to Iran. In addition to alienating the press, the shah's corruption and Westernizing policies angered the country's religious leaders and eventually led to his overthrow by Islamic fundamentalists. After the ouster of the shah, a torrent of publications poured forth whose variety and number were unprecedented in the modern history of Iran. According to a list published in June 1979, five months after the shah fled the country, it is estimated that more than two hundred periodicals on various subjects were being published. According to some analysts, the number of newspapers and journals published in the first months after the shah fled exceeded all those published in the last ten years of the Shah's reign. But the Prague spring of Iranian journalism was short lived. Soon the country's ruling clergy ordered the closure of more than twenty publications, including two leading newspapers, Ayandegan and Peyam-i Emruz. For nearly two decades, Iran's religious leaders strictly controlled the press, but with the election of Mohammad Khatemi as president in 1997, proponents of press freedom began hoping for greater freedom. Hasan Shariatma'dari, an Iranian political activist who now lives in Germany, says the Iranian press under President Khatami is freer than it has been in many years: /// SHARIATMADARI ACTUALITY /// Under Khatami, the Iranian press has found a special variety and multiplicity, and it can be compared with the press before the coup d'etat of 1953. In the first period of the shah's reign there was a relative freedom of the press, but, of course, now the political discussion has become much more sophisticated. From the point of view of content at that period there were two types of papers: one that followed the royal court and the other nationalistic papers. Now similarly, there are two types of papers: one adhering to an absolutist Islamic rule and the idea of Vilayat- e Faqih (the regency of the Theologian), and the other a reform-minded press favoring an open political atmosphere. One can give Abdollah Nouri as the best example of the latter category. /// END ACT /// Indeed Abdollah Nouri has come to epitomize the reformist movement in Iran. His trial created an unprecedented sensation in the country. Without mentioning Mr. Nouri, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamnei, recently made a sharp attack on those Iranians who are advocating change and better ties with the United States. In response, Ayatollah Muntaziri, once a close disciple of Khomeini and now under house-arrest and in opposition, offered a vehement defense of Mr. Nouri. The struggle between the religious leaders and those who favor greater press freedom has become a major issue in Iran. The text of Mr. Nouri's statement at his trial and the text of the government's charges against him have been published under the title "Hemlock for Advocate of Reform" and has become a bestseller in Iran. Ali Sajjadi, the editor of the Washington-based Par Journal, says the Nouri trial is of lasting importance for the country: /// SAJJADI ACTUALITY // The trial of Abdullah Nouri will be referred to in the years to come. This is especially interesting as it is the first time that a person, using the trial process, is defending the freedom of expression. Basing his arguments on the existing laws, he is expressing his ideas in the most effective way. While he is believing in the system and the regency of the theologian and the rest, he severely criticizes the system and shows how corrupt it is. This might be an exceptional case in the history of Iranian journalism that a person so openly and courageously lashes out at the whole system of a government which is in power and rules the country. /// END ACT /// As the year comes to an end, the struggle for freedom of expression in Iran, a struggle that began more than a century ago, seems destined to continue into the next century. (Signed) NEB/HJ/KL 23-Dec-1999 09:47 AM EDT (23-Dec-1999 1447 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .
