June 28
Judicial chief rejects calls to end newspaper closings
TEHRAN, June 28 (AFP) - Iranian judicial chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi
has rejected calls from parliament to stop shutting down newspapers, a
response reformers say is "unacceptable." Shahrudi, in a letter
read to parliament Tuesday, said the judiciary's decision to close down
more than a dozen newspapers was "independent and made without bias."
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Court starts open trial of suspended papers
TEHRAN (June 28) XINHUA - Iran on Wednesday started the first open trial
of the papers and journals suspended in recent months for disparaging Islam
and religious elements of the Islamic revolution. The first trial started
at Branch 1410 of Tehran's Public Court, scheduled to hear the case against
Mostafa Izadi, managing director of the suspended weekly "Ava"
(Voice), the Islamic Republic News Agency reported >>>
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Judiciary asks for permanent closing of reformist weekly
TEHRAN, June 28 (AFP) - An Iranian court asked Wednesday for the permanent
closing of the pro-reform weekly Ava, which was suspended in a recent government
crackdown on 13 daily newspapers and five other periodicals, the official
IRNA news agency reported. "Ava's director and journalists must be
punished and its authorization to publish must be permanently annulled,"
the press court prosecutor, Ali Asghar Tashakori, said in the first hearing
of a string of cases against the suspended publications >>>
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June 27
Pressure for free press
TEHRAN, Iran Iran's supreme leader urged the conservative
judiciary Tuesday not to yield to reformist pressure for greater press
freedom. In a statement broadcast on state radio, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
told judges that they had to punish criminals irrespective of their political
affiliations >>>
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June 26
Court orders Sahabi jailed
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A hard-line Iranian court ordered a leading dissident
imprisoned Monday, continuing its crackdown on journalists and reformists
demanding greater freedoms. Ezatollah Sahabi, the editor of a magazine
among 19 pro-democracy publications banned since April, was reportedly
detained in connection with a conference he attended in Germany >>>
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110,000 sign petition to free journalists
TEHRAN, June 26 (AFP) - A petition signed by 110,00 people, mostly students,
calling for the release of jailed journalists has been presented to the
Iranian judiciary, an Islamic student association in Tehran told AFP Monday.
The petition was submitted late Sunday to the head of the country's court
system, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, according to a representative
of the association of Tehran University's faculty of literature and humanities
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June 25
19th newspaper banned
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line judiciary closed another reformist
newspaper Sunday and defended its media crackdown as a way of upholding
the country's Islamic principles. Bayan became the 19th newspaper ordered
to shut down in the past two months. Its closure coincided with a Tehran
Justice Ministry statement responding to a letter from 151 lawmakers that
had urged an end to such measures, saying they had tarnished Iran's reputation
at home and abroad >>>
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June 22
Khatami protested against silencing papers: report
TEHRAN, June 22 (AFP) - President Mohammad Khatami protested to the
chief of the conservative-dominated judicial system last month against
the wave of closures of pro-reform newspapers, the Iranian press reported
Thursday. Khatami "supported the newspapers" and "sent a
message in the form of a constitutional warning" to Ayatollah Mahmud
Hashemi Shahrudi, said new pro-reform newspaper Hayat-e-no, which is run
by Hadi Khamenei, brother of the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei >>>
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June 21
Hajjarian ready to appear in court
Tehran (Bahar) -- Saeed Hajjarian, leading reformist whose newspaper
was shut down for alleged press violations, has told his lawyer that he
is prepared to appear in court despite not having fully recovered following
last february's assassination attempt >>>
FULL TEXT IN PERSIAN
Akbar Ganji's third letter to judiciary chief
Tehran (Bahar) -- Political columnist Akbar Ganji, detained for his
"anti-Islamic" comments at the Berlin conference, has written
yet another letter to the judiciary chie >>>
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Reformists See Room for a Better Iran
By ROBIN WRIGHT
Los Angeles Times
June 21, 2000
TEHRAN--The once-bustling offices at 15 Taheri St. are eerily silent,
the corridors empty of life, the computers shut down, the lights off. Gone
are the young reporters who defiantly worked here for two years--through
constant criticism by conservatives, frequent charges by the judiciary,
occasional jailings of the editor and publisher and, finally, five renamed
versions of the same paper banned over and over again. One version lasted
only a day FULL
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June 18
Reformers urge rights respect
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's new reformist legislature warned the hard-line
judiciary Sunday that its ``illegal behavior'' toward the press has damaged
the country's international image, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
A letter signed by 151 lawmakers called on the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, to ``put an end to illegal and politically motivated
closure of newspapers.'' >>>
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Docs remove Hajjarian's bullet
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Doctors have removed a bullet from the neck of a
leading reformer who was shot and critically wounded last March in an assassination
attempt, a close aide said Sunday. Saeed Hajjarian was discharged from
the hospital after the surgery Saturday and has returned home, said the
aide, who identified himself only as Tajik >>>
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June 17
Publisher imprisoned
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian publisher has been imprisoned for insulting
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the February election
campaign, newspapers reported Saturday. Alireza Khoshandam, who runs a
small book-publishing house called Creative Dialogue Publications, was
prosecuted for remarks made during his unsuccessful bid to gain election
to parliament >>>
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June 15
Call for release of Berlin detainees
Tehran (Bahar) -- About a hundred academics in the Middle East, Europe
and the U.S., including Noam Chomsky, have a written a letter to Judiciary
chief Shahroudi calling for the release of those who were detained because
of their participation in the Berlin conference
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June 14
Amnesty International: Annual Report 2000 on Iran
Issues relating to freedom of expression dominated the year. Journalists
began to address in print the political, economic and social problems facing
Iran and broached issues that had previously been taboo. As the year progressed,
a pattern of intimidation, harassment and administrative detention emerged
as a mechanism for silencing a range of opinion >>>
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Authorities search reformists' homes: report
TEHRAN, June 14 (AFP) - The homes of three reformist journalists, including
the imprisoned Akbar Ganji, were searched under orders of a revolutionary
tribunal, the pro-reform newspaper Bayan said Wednesday >>>
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June 12
Directors of banned dailies to appear in court
TEHRAN, 12 June (AFP) - Directors of several banned reformist dailies,
including the brother of the Iranian president, Mohammad-Reza Khatami,
will appear before the press court "in two weeks," the Head of
Iran's Judiciary Abbassali Alizadeh announced Monday >>>
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Reformists seek press freedoms
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - In a bid to fulfill the promises that helped them
win parliamentary elections, more than 100 reformist lawmakers have drafted
a bill calling for lifting restrictions on media imposed by their predecessors,
a lawmaker said Monday. ``Press freedom is the first priority of the new
Majlis (parliament),'' Rajabali Mazrouie, a journalist and leading reformist
lawmaker, told The Associated Press >>>
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June 11
New pro-reform daily begins publication in Iran
TEHRAN, June 11 (AFP) - A new pro-reform newspaper run by the brother
of Iran's supreme spiritual guide Ali Khameini hit Tehran newsstands Sunday,
more than a month after most reformist publications were shut down by the
government >>>
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June 7
Momentum builds to free Abdollah Nouri
TEHRAN, June 7 (Reuters) - Supporters of the jailed Iranian cleric Abdollah
Nouri said on Wednesday that hopes for his release were improving after
the head of the new parliament offered to help free him. Associates of
Nouri, who was taken from prison earlier this week to hospital for treatment
of a slipped disc, said that the parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi had
agreed to seek the reformist cleric's freedom >>>
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June 6
Leading Majlis reformist calls for respect for human rights
TEHRAN, June 6 (AFP) - Leading Iranian reformist Mohammad-Reza Khatami
made a swingeing attack Tuesday on the abuse of human rights in Iran, including
arbitrary arrests, torture and censorship, and called on the new parliament
to defend personal freedoms. "Unfortunately, I have to say that the
rights of the people as laid down in the constitution are not respected,
" Khatami, brother of Iran's President Mohammad Khatami, said in his
maiden speech to the reformist-dominated parliament which took office on
May 27 >>>
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Reformers aim for free press, expression
TEHRAN, June 6 (Reuters) - Iran's biggest reformist faction, estimating
its strength in the new parliament at roughly half the 290 seats, has pledged
to push back the boundaries of free expression in the Islamic Republic.
Mohsen Mirdomadi, a prominent member of the Islamic Iran Participation
Front, was quoted on Tuesday as saying the group would take aim at a restrictive
press law passed in the waning days of the old, conservative-led parliament
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June 5
Rohani calls for legal satellite dishes
TEHRAN, June 5 (Reuters) - A prominent political cleric has urged Iran
to finally legalise satellite television, arguing that the Islamic Republic
is capable of defending its values from undue foreign influence. Hassan
Rowhani, secretary of the powerful Supreme National Security Council, said
Iran had to open itself up to the outside world and offer its citizens,
particularly young people, greater access to modern trends >>>
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Abdollah Nuri hospitalised with neck pain
TEHRAN, June 5 (AFP) - Imprisoned Iranian reformist Abdollah Nuri has
been taken from Tehran's Evin prison to hospital after suffering "severe
pain" in the vertebrae of his neck, his brother Ali Reza Nuri told
AFP Monday. "He was hospitalised on Saturday and will stay there until
his pain hasgone," said Ali Reza, who himself is a reformist MP elected
in Tehran >>>
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June 1
Khatami adviser summoned to appear before press court
TEHRAN, June 1 (AFP) - A reformist journalist and adviser to Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami has been summoned to answer charges before the
country's press court, the daily Bahar reported Thursday. Ali Rabii, director
of Kar-o-Karegar daily, and his deputy, Morteza Lotfi, have both been the
target of numerous complaints from state radio and television, the police
and two former MPs, the reformist paper reported >>>
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