June 30
* Iran minister slams bid to curb press freedom
TEHRAN, June 30 (Reuters) - Iran's liberal Culture Minister Ataollah
Mohajerani on Wednesday slammed a bill proposed by conservative deputies
in parliament aimed at limiting the country's fledgling press freedom.
``The custodians of the press and (newspaper) editors have not been consulted
about this bill...In our view, this bill is not meant to amend the press
law, but to change its whole structure,'' state radio quoted the minister
as saying ... FULL
TEXT
June 27
* Khatami demands justice for the press
TEHRAN, June 27 (Reuters) - Iranian President
Mohammad Khatami, keen to protect press freedoms he has fostered as part
of his two-year reform drive, on Sunday demanded cases involving the media
be removed from hardline Revolutionary Courts and heard before special
press juries. Khatami used a national gathering of judiciary officials,
led by arch-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, to remind them that
the constitution calls for jury trials for press violations and political
crimes. He also said defendants had a right to legal respresentation at
all times ... FULL
TEXT
June 23
* Iranian reformist publisher is interrogated in court
Teheran (dpa) - An Iranian reformist publisher was interrogated Wednesday
for several hours by a Teheran court over having expressed doubts regarding
Islamic values, informed sources said. Saaid Hajarian, the publisher of
the liberal daily newspaper Emruz, was interrogated by a court over ``having
expressed doubts'' over Islamic values in reply to a reader's question,
the sources said ... FULL
TEXT
June 22
* Fear for Safety of Journalists
June 22, (Amnesty International) - Amnesty International is concerned
for the safety of Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, editor-in-chief of the weekly
newsletter Hoveyat-e-Khish (Our Identity), and Hossein Kashani, its director,
who have been arrested after questioning about publishing information contrary
to "public order and the public interest". On 16 June 1999, Hossein
Kashani was summoned to a tribunal at the office of the revolutionary prosecutor,
in Evin prison, and arrested after questioning ... FULL
TEXT
* Coroner says jailed suspected killer died of arsenic poisoning
June 23, BBC Monitoring - Iranian TV) - As you have heard in the news,
one of the agents of the recent suspicious killings, named Sa'id Emami,
has committed suicide. In order to clarify the matter and provide you with
more information, the correspondents from the Central News Unit talked
to the coroner and the doctor who, with his colleagues, made an extensive
effort to save Sa'id Emami's life ... FULL
TEXT
* Iran: Chief suspect's suicide will not affect investigation
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Foreigners trying to tarnish Iran's
image aided in a string of murders late last year of dissident intellectuals,
the military prosecutor said Tuesday. The case, which shocked the nation
because of acknowledged involvement by Iranian intelligence agents, made
headlines again when the top suspect reportedly killed himself Saturday
in prison ... FULL
TEXT
June 21
* Moderate Iranian press puzzles over suicide
of murders' mastermind
TEHRAN, June 21 (AFP) - The mastermind of last
year's murders of Iranian dissidents was identified as a former intelligence
official on Monday as the moderate press here raised a number of questions
about his suicide. Saeed Emami, also known as Saaed Eslami, committed suicide
by swallowing "vajebi," a highly toxic powder mostly used for
hair-removal in Iran, while in the public bath of a prison in the capital
on Saturday ... FULL
TEXT
June 16
* Director of Iranian paper arrested
TEHRAN, June 16 (AFP) - The director of a weekly publication close to
reformist circles in Iran was arrested Wednesday on the orders of the conservative
revolutionary tribunal in Tehran, the magazine said. Hossein Kashani, director
of Hoveyat-e-Khish, was taken in for questioning for having published information
contrary to "public order and the public interest," officials
said ... FULL
TEXT
June 15
* Shamlu hospitalized
June 15, 1999 (Neshat) -- Poet Ahmad Shamlu has again been hospitalized
for a variety of illnesses that appear quite serious ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
June 14
* Sarkuhi honored at paper forum
Monday, June 14, 1999 ZURICH, Switzerland (AP)
-- Iranian editor Faraj Sarkuhi, who was imprisoned both before and after
the country's Islamic revolution, received the Golden Pen of Freedom award
Monday from the World Association of Newspapers. Sarkuhi, former editor-in-chief
of the banned monthly magazine Adineh, told 1,100 editors and publishers
from 88 countries that ``international support and world pressure'' saved
his life after he was condemned to death three times ``during the tyranny
of the Islamic Republic.''... FULL
TEXT
June 13
* 'Hoviyyat-e Kheesh' banned for "insults"
June 13, 1999 (Kayhan - BBC Monitoring) - The fortnightly 'Hoviyyat-e
Kheesh' ['Self-Identity'] has been banned and all copies of the latest
edition have been taken out of circulation. According to reports, the Islamic
Revolution Court of Tehran has indicated that 'Hoviyyat-e Kheesh' has been
accused of insults and defamation against the main principles of the Islamic
republic's system ... FULL
TEXT
* Conversative clampdown on press
June 8, 1999 (BBC) - The conservative majority in the Iranian parliament
has introduced a controversial bill which journalists allege is intended
to restrict press freedom. The bill includes changes to the current, relatively
liberal press law in several key areas, such as referring some press offences
to the revolutionary courts, where there is no jury and no access to lawyers
... FULL
TEXT
June 4
* Stern rebuke for Iran's liberals on 10th anniversary of Khomeini's
death
TEHRAN, June 4 (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader delivered a stern rebuke
to liberal reformers within the Islamic regime Friday in a keynote speech
marking the 10th anniversary of the death of the regime's founder, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini. "We don't need any lessons about freedom from political
upstarts," Khomeini's successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the hundreds
of thousands of Iranians gathered for the centrepiece anniversary rally
... FULL
TEXT
June 3
* Iranian official calls for end to press crackdown
TEHRAN, June 3 (Reuters) - A senior Iranian culture ministry official
has appealed for an end to harassment of the liberal press by the conservative-led
judiciary after a spate of arrests of newspaper directors, newspapers reported
on Thursday. ``I formally protest the mistreatment of the press corps.
Currently, journalists do not feel safe,'' newspapers quoted the Deputy
Culture Minister on press affairs, Shaban Shahidi-Moaddab, as saying ...
FULL TEXT
* Khamenei boosts hardliners in media battle
Prague, 3 June 1999 (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) -- Iran's Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently sent a message which can be regarded
as the opening salvo of a new effort by hardliners to tighten their control
over Iran's broadcast and print media. The battle over the media is likely
to gain significance in the coming months as Iran approaches parliamentary
elections due early next year, and control of the media could help decide
the outcome of the polls ... FULL
TEXT
June 2
* Iran's pen association starts activities
tehran, june 2, irna -- the first post-revolution association of iranian
writers, translators, poets and researchers under the title of 'iran pen
association' started its activities as of may 26. mohammad reza sarshar
(rahgozar), spokesman and a founding member of the association, said the
goal behind founding the association is to defend freedom of expression
and thoughts within the framework of islam and the constitution and support
material and moral rights of the creators of literary works in an effort
to remove existing irregularities ... FULL
TEXT
June 1
* Iranian reformist newspaper director released on bail
TEHRAN, June 1 (AFP) - Mohammad Reza Zohdi, director of the Iranian
reformist newspaper Arya, was released on bail late Monday from Tehran's
Evin prison, the official IRNA news agency reported. He had been held there
since Saturday for defamation, spreading false information, and publishing
confidential military information ... FULL
TEXT
