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
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