July 31
Newspaper editor jailed
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's hard-line judiciary has sentenced the editor
of a banned reformist newspaper to a four-month jail term and an unspecified
cash fine, a newspaper reported Monday. Mohammad Reza Zohdi, director of
the Arya daily, was found guilty of a wide range of charges that included
``insulting officials and government organizations'' and ``disturbing public
opinion'' with his publication, Iran's official daily paper reported >>>
FULL TEXT
July 29
IRNA and Keyhan newspaper end war of attrition
TEHRAN, July 29 (AFP) - Iran's government-run official IRNA news agency
and the conservative Kayhan paper, two leading news providers in the Islamic
republic, announced the end to an escalating war of words Saturday. The
news providers had been caught up in an unprecedented dispute which pitched
IRNA, close to reformist President Mohammad Khatami, up against Kayhan,
which is close to Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei >>> FULL TEXT
July 28
Press clampdown paralyses reform course in Iran
July 28, 2000, Teheran (dpa) - Despite overwhelming victories in presidential
and parliamentary elections Iranian President Mohammad Khatami seems to
have ground to a halt with his reform efforts. The slow-down follows an
extensive press crackdown by the conservative opposition >>>
FULL TEXT
July 26
Media wage war of attrition
TEHRAN, July 26 (AFP) - An unprecedented war of words between Iran's
official news agency IRNA and the conservative daily Kayhan, two of the
leading news providers in the Islamic republic, is escalating into a war
of attrition. The fight has seen the two news bodies publicly trade insults
and accuse each other of being "in the pocket of foreigners"
>>>
FULL TEXT
PEN expresses sympathy for Shamlou's death
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 26, 2000 -- Dear Colleagues, On behalf of
the 2,700 writers who are members of PEN American Center, we wish to express
our deepest condolence at the death of our esteemed colleague, Ahmad Shamlou,
who passed away on the evening of July 23 in his native Iran >>>
FULL TEXT
July 25
Amnesty open letter to members of Iran's Sixth Majles
25 July 2000
The following is the text of an Open Letter from Amnesty International's
Secretary General to members of the Sixth Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami (Islamic
Consultative Assembly)
Your Excellencies,
I am writing to you as Secretary General of Amnesty International on
the occasion of your recent election to the Sixth Majles-e Shoura-ye Eslami
(Islamic Consultative Assembly). We are greatly encouraged by the public
statements made by some of your members expressing their commitment to
defend fundamental freedoms, as well as some concrete moves to ease constraints
on freedom of expression. We hope that your term of office in the next
four years will be memorable for the advancements made in promoting a program
of legal and administrative reform enabling all the people of Iran to enjoy
to the full their internationally recognised human rights >>>
FULL TEXT
Another reformist paper ordered closed by a Tehran court
TEHRAN, July 25 (AFP) - Tehran's public court Tuesday order the closure
of the reformist Iranian Gunagoun (variety) weekly, the official IRNA news
agency reported. According to IRNA, the court ordered a "temporary
closure," charging that the paper represents a re-emergence of the
suspended pro-reform Jame-eh, Tous, Neshat and Asre-Azadegan papers >>> FULL
TEXT
July 23
IRNA chief summoned to Tehran's press court
TEHRAN, July 23 (AFP) - The head of the Iran's state news agency IRNA
appeared at Tehran's press court Sunday following numerous complaints lodged
against him in his former capacity as director of the government-run newspaper
Iran, IRNA reported. "I was summoned to answer to 24 old complaints
and some 30 new complaints lodged against me as the former director of
the Iran paper," Ferydoon Verdinejad said after the court hearing,
as cited by IRNA
>>> FULL TEXT
July 19
IRNA reports threats from fundamentalists
TEHRAN, July 19 (AFP) - Iran's official IRNA news agency said Wednesday
it has been flooded over the past two days by threatening anonymous phone
calls from Islamic fundamentalist circles. IRNA said the "organized
threatening phone calls" came after the agency criticized the conservative
Kayhan daily >>>
FULL TEXT
July 18
Reformist newspaper boss convicted
TEHRAN, July 18 (AFP) - An Iranian jury Monday found the editor of the
banned reformist daily Arya guilty, after only his second appearance before
the press court, according to a statement released by Tehran's Palace of
Justice. "The jury found Hamid Reza Zohdi guilty of provoking public
opinion by publishing false information, defamation and insults, notably
of violating the election law in his newspaper," said the statement
as quoted by the official news agency IRNA >>>
FULL TEXT
Khatami's brother summoned to court
TEHRAN, July 18 (AFP) - Two leading members of Iran's Islamic Participation
Front (IIPF), including Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's brother, have
been summoned by Tehran's judiciary, the official IRNA news agency reported
Tuesday. Mohammad-Reza Khatami, head of the left-wing reformist coalition
that dominates parliament, and Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of parliament's national
security and foreign policy council, must appear at Tehran's central court
on Wednesday, IRNA said >>>
FULL TEXT
July 17
Kadivar freed, Baghi jailed
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Reformist cleric Mohsen Kadivar, a leading theoretician
of Iran's Islamic modernist movement, has been released from jail after
serving an 18-month sentence for political and religious dissent. But Iranian
newspapers Monday quoted him as saying his release was temporary and that
he expected new charges from the same clerical court that convicted him
in 1998 >>>
FULL TEXT
Culture minister, Ataollah Mohajerani, publishes new edition of book
on Rushdie
TEHRAN, July 17 (AFP) - A new edition has been issued of Culture Minister
Ataollah Mohajerani's book on Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses,"
in which the Iranian official says the British novelist's work is part
of a plot against Islam. The 12th run of Mohajerani's book, which has just
hit Tehran bookstores, examines Rushdie's book "in the historical
context of the battle between the West and Islam." >>>
FULL TEXT
July 12
PEN writes to Khatami to protest lawyers' detention
On behalf of the 2,700 writers who are members of PEN American Center,
we write again this time to protest the detention of Shirin Ebadi and Mohsen
Rahami, two leading pro-reform lawyers. Their imprisonment is another blow
to the course of reform underway in Iran and speaks to the precarious situation
facing writers and intellectuals >>>
FULL TEXT
July 10
Reformist newspaper boss goes on trial in Tehran
TEHRAN July 10 (AFP) - The publisher of the banned reformist daily,
Arya, went on trial Monday following complaints filed by Tehran's Chief
Justice and Armed Forces Intelligence Unit, the conservative Kayhan daily
reported. "Hamid Reza Zohdi is accused of provoking public opinion,
publishing malicious lies, insulting the state, eroding the regime of the
Islamic Republic and (printing) anti-state propaganda," said the daily
>>>
FULL TEXT
July 6
Press court summons conservative newspaper chiefs
TEHRAN, July 6 (AFP) - Two conservative daily newspaper directors have
been summoned to appear before Tehran's press court, the official IRNA
news agency reported Thursday. Hossein Shariatmadari, head of Kayhan, and
Morteza Nabavi, director of Resalaat, have been summoned following the
publication of articles in connection with taped remarks against some officials
of the Islamic Republic of Iran>>>
FULL TEXT
July 5
Pro-reform newspaper editors launch hunger-strike to mark student
unrest
TEHRAN, July 5 (AFP) - Three jailed reformist Iranian newspaper editors
will stage a hunger strike to mark the first anniversary of a violent police
assault on a Tehran University, the government-run Iran paper reported
Wednesday. "Ezatollah Sahabi, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, and Latif Safari,
who are serving a prison sentence following the recent suspension of their
papers, have announced that they will perform a political fasting on Friday
and Saturday to mark the anniversary of the unrest," the paper said >>> FULL
TEXT
July 4
Soroush and Kadivar win human rights grants
(New York) July 4, 2000 -- Human Rights Watch today announced a diverse
group of writers from 22 countries to receive grants recognizing their
courage in the face of political persecution >>>
FULL TEXT
July 2
Prominent reformists denounce Sahgabi's arrest
TEHRAN, July 2 (AFP) - Nearly 300 Iranian political figures and academics
have drafted an open letter denouncing the recent arrest of Ezzatollah
Sahabi, a leader in Iran's progressive opposition. "We ask for the
unconditional release of Mr. Sahabi, a moderate-minded patriot and longstanding
fighter and a high official in the provisional government at the start
of the revolution," wrote the 276 signers of the letter, which will
be published in the press >>>
FULL TEXT