August 28
* Paper publishes banned photo of leading dissident
TEHRAN, Aug 28 (AFP) - An Iranian newspaper close to nationalist circles
published a front-page picture on Saturday of a dissident cleric once in
line to be Iran 's supreme leader but now forbidden to be mentioned in
the press. The Iran Vij paper featured a photo of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali
Montazeri, whose fierce criticisms of the regime have left him under house
arrest for the last 10 years ... FULL
TEXT
August 25
* Cleric: Rushdie wasn't to be killed
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
did not really intend to have Salman Rushdie killed when he condemned the
British author to death for blaspheming Islam, a moderate Iranian cleric
said ... FULL
TEXT
August 23
* Abdi acquitted of slander
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A prominent Iranian journalist was
acquitted Sunday of slander charges, the official Islamic Republic News
Agency reported. Abbas Abdi, who had been accused of insulting hard-liners
opposed to talks with the United States, was acquitted by a court in the
holy city of Qom, 50 miles southwest of Tehran, the agency reported ...
FULL TEXT
August 12
* Court releases reformist editor on bail
TEHRAN, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Iran's Press Court, which normally hears
cases to do with the media in front of a press jury, has released a reformist
newspaper editor on bail after 22 days in prison, newspapers said on Thursday.
Kazem Shokri, an editor at the popular reformist Sobh-e Emrouz newspaper,
was released on 150 million rials ($5 million) bail, they said ... FULL TEXT
August 9
* Reporters sans Frontieres Uncovers Enemies of the Internet
PARIS, FRANCE, 1999 AUG 9 (Newsbytes) -- A new report by Reporters Sans
Frontieres (RSF) has named 45 nations the group considers enemies of the
Internet for the blocking and filtering or all-out banning the nations
impose on Internet access. Of the 45 nations, RSF said 20 can be described
as real enemies of the Internet for their actions. They are: the countries
of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and
Vietnam ... FULL
TEXT
August 5
* Iran's ban on Salam newspaper deals new blow to reformers
TEHRAN, Aug 5 (AFP) - A five-year ban slapped on Iran's popular reformist
Salam newspaper, whose initial closure sparked days of bloody riots, has
dealt another blow to President Mohammad Khatami's reform agenda ahead
of key elections next year. "Goodbye Salam!" was the headline
Kar-O-Kargar, a workers' newspaper hich like the rest of the press reported
without comment Wednesday's decision by the hardline Special Court for
Clergy ... FULL
TEXT
* Media group denounces closure of Iranian newspaper
PARIS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers on
Thursday denounced the closure of a leading Iranian pro-reform newspaper,
saying the move undermined Tehran's pledge to improve human rights. ``The
Special Court for Clergy has no competence to judge a press offence,''
RSF said in a letter sent to Iran President Mohammad Khatami ... FULL
TEXT
August 4
* Hardline court shuts Salam daily
TEHRAN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Iran's hardline clerical court has banned
the country's leading pro-reform newspaper for five years and barred its
publisher from press activities, the official IRNA news agency said on
Wednesday. It said the court ordered a ban on the daily Salam for printing
secret documents, while publisher and managing editor Mohammad Mousavi-Khoeiniha,
a powerful leftist cleric, was suspended from journalism for three years
... FULL
TEXT
* Mystery murders' out to embarrass Iran -judiciary
TEHRAN, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A series of murders of dissidents in Iran
late last year were the work of a small group in the intelligence ministry
which sought to destabilise the Islamic republic and embarrass it in the
eyes of the world, judiciary officials said on Wednesday. In a statement
on months of investigation into the mystery killings of at least four dissidents,
the armed forces judicial organisation said the plot was limited to a handful
of agents inside the intelligence ministry, including a deputy minister,
operating without official sanction or authorisation ... FULL
TEXT
* U.S.-funded radio denies detained Iranian journalist worked for
it
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A U.S.-funded radio network denied
Tuesday that an Iranian woman arrested in Tehran was employed by the station.
Iran 's hard-line Kayhan newspaper reported Tuesday that the detained woman,
Camellia Entekhabifard, had worked for Radio Free Europe, a radio station
that Iran considers hostile to its establishment ... FULL
TEXT
August 3
* Newspaper editor freed on bail
TEHRAN, Aug 3 (AFP) - The editor of the pro-reform Iranian newspaper
whose closure sparked days of bloody riots was freed on bail by a hardline
religious court on Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency said. Abbas Abdi,
summoned on charges his Salam paper had insulted the clergy and the Iranian
people, was released on the condition he pay some 200 million rials (65,000
dollars) ... FULL
TEXT
* Iran threatens revolutionary court trials for "incitement"
New York, August 3, 1999 (Human Rights Watch) -- "When governments
launch campaigns against 'incitement,' freedom of expression is often the
first casualty," said Hanny Megally, executive director of Human Rights
Watch's Middle East and North Africa division. "The Iranian judiciary
has been in the forefront of the campaign to stamp out dissent and Iran's
Revolutionary Courts are notorious for their disregard of basic fair trial
standards." ... FULL
TEXT
* "The Risk Has Increased Substantially"
August 3, (Frankfurt/Main Frankfurter Rundschau) - The forbidden Iranian
People's Party advocates democracy and freedom of speech. Its members see
themselves subject to mass persecution by the government since the student
unrest in Tehran. Frankfurter Rundschau staff member Andrea Claudia Hoffman
spoke with Mehran Adib (Brussels), chairman of the European branch of Hesb-e
Mellat-e [Iranian People's Party] ... FULL
TEXT
