May 31
* Journalists launch campaign
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian guild of journalists has launched a campaign
to reopen 19 publications shut down by hard-liners cracking down on reformist
press, a guild official said Wednesday. One month after the media crackdown
by the conservative-controlled judiciary, more than 1,000 journalists remain
out of work, said Karim Arqandehpour, deputy head of the Journalists' Guild
Association >>>
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May 30
* Reform journalist jailed
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - An Iranian court ordered a reformist journalist
jailed on Monday, his wife said, the latest sign of a crackdown on pro-reform
media and writers. Emadeddin Baqi was taken to Evin prison after being
tried in a press court with no jury, said his wife, Fatemeh Kamali >>>
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May 23
* Media Crackdown Continues
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian hard-liners, stung by the confirmed victory
of reformist candidates, shut down a newly launched newspaper Tuesday,
the 19th paper closed in a crackdown that began last month. State-run radio
also warned newspapers that questioning the results of recent parliamentary
elections could lead to prosecution, as the feud between reformers and
hard-liners over alleged vote tampering deepened in Iran. The Mellat daily
was banned by the hard-line judiciary for ``violating press laws,'' >>>
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* Popular cultural center attacked by "commandos"
TEHRAN, May 23 (AFP) - Approximately 50 people armed with tear-gas and
batons attacked a popular cultural center in north Tehran Monday, the official
paper of the Tehran municipality, Hamshahri, reported Monday. "After
incapacitating our security guards, they broke the windows and doors down
and proceeded to attack the center's director," said an employee of
the Andisheh cultural center quoted by the daily >>>
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May22
* New reformist newspaper appears in Tehran
TEHRAN, May 22 (AFP) - A new reformist newspaper hit Tehran newsstands
Monday, several weeks after most liberal newspapers were closed down by
the government. Mellat -- or The Nation -- is to "reflect the voice
of the silent majority," the newspaper says in its logo >>> FULL TEXT
May 21
* Akbar Ganji, reformist journalist, accused of contacts with US
military officer
TEHRAN, May 21 (AFP) - Prominent Iranian reformist journalist Akbar
Ganji had "illegal links" with a US military officer in Turkey,
the judiciary said in a statement Sunday explaining why he was arrested
a month ago. "The reason of Ganji's arrest is not the things he said
... but his illegal links with a US officer with NATO and certain important
members of the counter-revolutionary opposition in Turkey," said the
statement published in Sunday's press. It did not elaborate >>> FULL TEXT
* Abdollah Nouri allowed by court to appeal against sentence
TEHRAN, May 21 (AFP) - Former Iranian interior minister Abdollah Nuri
is to be allowed to appeal against his five-year jail sentence for "anti-Islamic
propaganda," the official IRNA news agency said Sunday. "The
courts have accepted my request for an appeal for Mr. Nuri," said
lawyer Mohsen Rahami, expressing "optimism" about the outcome,
IRNA reported >>>
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May 17
* Iran jails five for shooting of reformer
TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court jailed five men Wednesday for up
to 15 years for the attempted assassination of leading reformer Saeed Hajjarian,
the official news agency IRNA reported. It said the revolutionary court
sentenced Saeed Asgar, a chemistry student who shot and seriously wounded
Hajjarian in the March attack, to 15 years in jail for endangering national
security >>>
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May 16
* Another reformist newspaper closed
May 16, (BBC) -- Another reformist newspaper in Tehran has been closed
down on the orders of the hardline Iranian judiciary. The newspaper, Ham'mihan,
was run by the former mayor of Tehran, Gholamhossein Karbaschi >>>
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May 9
* Three reform newspaper bosses to be hauled into court
TEHRAN, May 9 (AFP) - The heads of three pro-reform Iranian newspapers
closed in a recent crackdown on the reformist press have been summoned
to appear in court, reports said Tuesday. Former deputy culture minister
Issa Saharkhiz, head of the business newspaper Akbar-Eqtesad and former
director of the state news agency IRNA, told AFP he was due to testify
on Wednesday >>>
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* Trial ends in case of assassination attempt on Hajjarian
TEHRAN, May 9 (AFP) - The trial of eight people suspected of carrying
out an assassination attempt on a leading Iranian reformer ended Tuesday,
after just three hearings, the official IRNA news agency reported. It said
a verdict would be given in an appropriate period of time on the suspected
attackers of Said Hajarian, a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami,
who was gunned down in the streets of Tehran in March >>>
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* Khamenei against culture minister, official says
TEHRAN, May 9 (AFP) - Iran's embattled Culture Minister Ataollah Mojerani
suffered a new blow Tuesday when a leading conservative said he was the
only member of President Mohammad Khatami's reformist government not to
have the support of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The leader
supports the person of Mr Khatami and his government, except the culture
and Islamic guidance minister," Mohsen Rezaie, secretary of the powerful
arbitration body, the Expediency Council, said in an interview with the
official news agency IRNA >>>
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* Kiarostami and censorship in Iran
National Public Radio, Morning Edition
May 8, 2000
Audio HERE
BOB EDWARDS, host: As the government of Iran was closing
several reformist newspapers and arresting their editors last month, Iranian
filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami was in the United States accepting a Lifetime
Achievement Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival. The
international press helped give Kiarostami the stature he has today. Critics
consider his movies some of the finest of the last 10 years. Kiarostami's
movies have not been critical of the Islamic regime in Teheran, but he
says he's concerned about the Iranian government's new restrictions of
freedom of expression. David D'Arcy reports >>>
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May 8
* Pro-reform paper goes to daily publication
TEHRAN, May 8 (AFP) - A pro-reform Iranian weekly headed by a close
ally of President Mohammad Khatami began daily publication Monday, weeks
after almost all the pro-Khatami press was closed down by the conservative
courts. Bahar (Spring), lead by the head of the presidency's press office
Said Pur-azizi, began daily publication with its first issue given over
to a bold proclamation of its pro-reform values >>>
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May 4
* Two student journalists kidnapped: paper
TEHRAN, May 4 (AFP) - Two Iranian student journalists from a Tehran
technical college have been kidnapped and a third attacked in the street,
a moderate newspaper said here Thursday >>>
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May 3
* Activists and Intellectuals Detained in Iran for Participating
in a Conference
(Washington, DC, May 3, 2000) -- Human Rights Watch today condemned
the April 30 arrest of six prominent Iranian activists for participating
in a conference on the future of Iran. The conference was held in Berlin
on April, 7-8, 2000. The detainees, all prominent Iranian intellectuals,
included Mehrangiz Kar, a women's rights advocate; Shahla Lahiji, publisher
of women's books; Akhbar Ganji, a journalist; and Ali Afshari, a student
leader. Ezzatollah Sahabi, a former minister, and Hamid-Reza Jalai-Pur,
an editor, were arrested and later released on bail. The six are charged
with "acting against the internal security of the state and disparaging
the holy order of the Islamic Republic." >>>
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* Khamenei among "worst enemies of the press"
New York, May 3, 2000 --The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released
its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press today, calling to
account those whose actions make them personally responsible for the abysmal
press conditions of their countries. Sierra Leone's Foday Sankoh, Iran's
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic head this year's
list FULL TEXT
* Iran assassination trial reopens
TEHRAN, May 3 (Reuters) - Suspects in the assassination attempt against
pro-reform strategist and presidential aide Saeed Hajjarian returned to
court on Wednesday, one day after their alleged victim was released from
hospital. The official IRNA news agency said the case resumed in a Tehran
Revolutionary Court in the trial of eight young men, including the accused
triggerman in the gangland-style shooting on March 12 that left Hajjarian
with a bullet lodged near his spinal chord >>>
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* Iran shooting suspect says duped by accomplice
TEHRAN, May 3 (Reuters) - A main suspect in the attempted assassination
of a leading Iranian reformer said in court on Wednesday he had been misled
by an accomplice to take part in the shooting, Iran 's official IRNA news
agency reported. "In the beginning we believed that (Mohammad Ali)
Moqaddami was concerned about the system and Islam, but we found out later
that we had been fooled by him," 29-year-old Mohsen Majidi said >>> FULL
TEXT
* Journalists mark press freedom day
TEHRAN, May 3 (AFP) - Iranian journalists have marked international
press freedom day by setting up a fund to help colleagues thrown out of
work by recent press closure. The day falls less than two weeks after the
conservative- dominated courts closed much of the reformist press >>> FULL
TEXT
* Culture minister grilled in Majlis
TEHRAN, May 3 (AFP) - Iran's embattled Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani
came under renewed attack Wednesday as a conservative MP charged he misused
government money to subsidise the pro-reform press. Ahmad Nejabat told
parliament that Mohajerani, blamed repeatedly for laxity over the pro-reform
press, much of which was shut down last week, had unfairly distributed
funds to reformist papers >>>
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May 2
* Tehran council plans unemployment fund for journalists after press
bans
TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - The Tehran city council is putting forward plans
for an emergency fund to help the estimated 1,500 journalists left jobless
by the closure of Iranian newspapers, press reports said here Tuesday.
The council, in tandem with the culture ministry and the journalists' union,
is to vote on the plan, which would also offer loans to reporters left
in dire straits by the wholesale press closures last week >>>
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* Eight intelligence officers arrested over murders inquiry: paper
TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Iran has arrested eight intelligence officers
for mistreating suspects in the 1998 killings of several dissidents and
intellectuals, a newspaper said here Tuesday. The conservative Tehran Times,
considered close to the judiciary, said the eight interrogators were arrested
last week following complaints from suspects who were subsequently cleared
of involvement in the murders >>>
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* Khatami explains assassination bid
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met Tuesday with
a close reformist ally who survived an assassination attempt, telling him
such shootings are the price of change. The president received Saeed Hajjarian
in Sadabad Palace. Hajjarian, who suffered a stroke after the March 12
attack and cannot walk, sat in a wheelchair and spoke very slowly with
frequent pauses. Khatami and Hajjarian smiled at each other and exchanged
jokes >>>
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* Journalist says press court unfit to try him
TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Journalist Emadeddin Baghi said Iran's conservative
press court, which hauled him in for a second day of hearings Tuesday,
was unfit to judge him. "This court is not competent and I have sent
a letter to the justice department," Baghi told reporters following
the closed-door session at the Tehran press court >>>
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* US culture could swallow up native cultures: Khatami
TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami warned Tuesday
that US culture could take over the world, swamping indigenous cultures.
"Native cultures feel threatened by the Americanisation of their cultures,
while wise men in America speak of cultural decline and impoverishment,"
Khatami said in a speech at the opening of Tehran's 13th book fair >>> FULL
TEXT
May 1
* Courts hear cases against reformists
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Three prominent Iranian reformers including two journalists
went on trial Monday before hard-line courts on charges of acting against
state security and violating religious values. Emadeddin Baqi was the latest
in a string of journalists to appear before the special press court. He
has angered the conservative establishment with allegations that officials
of the security services were behind serial murders of dissidents.>>>
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* Khatami pushes reform agenda
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Defiant against a fierce hard-line crackdown on
Iran's pro-democracy movement, President Mohammad Khatami insisted Saturday
that the reforms he started three years ago could not be stopped. Khatami's
statement was his strongest yet against hard-liners who are trying to preserve
their power and, it is feared, will seek to prevent the gathering of Iran's
newly elected pro-reform parliament >>>
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* MPs warn culture minister but say no impeachment yet
TEHRAN, May 1 (AFP) - Iran's embattled culture minister, the target
of conservative wrath over the brazen pro-reform press, is unlikely to
be impeached despite reports to the contrary, MPs said in Monday's papers.
The conservative Tehran Times, considered close to the judiciary, quoted
four members of the outgoing conservative parliament saying a motion to
remove Ataollah Mohajerani was unlikely to be put forward >>>
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