Defiant Iranian Paper To Publish
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's most outspoken newspaper,
which has published under three different names and has been shut down
each time by hard-liners, plans to come out under yet another title, a
notice on the daily's Web site announced Wednesday. (Image
of new newspaper)
Hard-line authorities closed the daily Neshat on Saturday for allegedly
insulting Islam and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which is run by allies
of the reformist President Mohammad Khatami and oversees all media activity,
defended Neshat in a statement published Wednesday, saying the closure
was illegal.
The notice on the newspaper's Web site said the daily would be published
soon under the name Akhbar-e-Eqtesad, or Economic News. It did not say
when the first issue would appear. Despite its title, the new paper is
expected to be much like Neshat.
Neshat's publisher and editors have been at the forefront of a power
struggle between religious hard-liners and Khatami, who wants to grant
greater freedom of expression.
Hard-liners have tried to scuttle presidential reforms by shutting down
several pro-Khatami newspapers and arresting prominent reformists who have
been clamoring for change.
Neshat first appeared as Jameah shortly after Khatami's May 1997 election
and won immediate popularity.
When hard-liners shut it down in July 1998, the paper was on the newsstands
the next day under the new name of Tous.
Authorities cracked down once again in September last year, closing
the paper and arresting editor-in-chief Mahmoud Shamsolvaezin and five
of his colleagues on charges of activities against Iran's security and
interests. They were freed after about a month.
Neshat, which began publishing earlier this year, was ordered to close
after it published an open letter from an opposition leader advising Khamenei
to distance himself from hard-liners.
Religious hard-liners were also angered by an article that called for
the abolition of capital punishment, calling it ``the most prominent type
of governmental violence.''
In a speech following that article, Khamenei said anyone who questioned
the Islamic rationale for the death penalty deserved to be executed.
* Iran News
* Complete list of Iranian
online media
* Cover stories
* Who's
who
