His Excellency Mohammad Khatami
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran

Vienna, 26 July 1999

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and newspapers, strongly condemns the recent arrest of the editor of the moderate national daily, Emrooz, and the guilty verdict on Sunday, 25 July, against the publisher and editor-in-chief of the leading pro-reform newspaper, Salam.

Kazem Shokri, editor of Emrooz, was arrested on Tuesday, 20 July, and charged with having authorised an article, “Two parallel lines do not cross unless God wills it,” alleged to be insulting to Islam. The newspaper’s publisher, Saeed Hajarian, was held earlier, but was released on bail after he said that Mr. Shokri was responsible for publishing the article.

Mohammad Mousavi-Khoeiniha of the influential Salam was convicted for publishing an allegedly classified document, slandering provincial officials and linking MPs to a rogue secret agent accused of masterminding the murder of several dissidents last year. The eight-member jury – all conservative clergy chosen by the judge – included three prominent hard-liners. A final judgement, which could include the permanent closure of Salam and Mousavi-Khoeiniha’s imprisonment, was due later.

Iran’s hard-liners in the judiciary, the parliament and the main clerical bodies – supporters of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – have recently stepped up their campaign against the liberal media, which has flourished under Your Excellency’s reformist government. A number of moderate publications have been suspended or permanently closed by conservative-run courts, while some of their editors remain in jail awaiting trial.

Earlier this month, the conservative-led parliament approved the outlines of a tough new press law, which would compel journalists to reveal their sources and reinforce such hard-line institutions as the Revolutionary Court, while on 7 July a clerical court closed until further notice the daily Salam, triggering six days of unrest by Iran’s pro-democracy student movement.

The detention of journalists for their reporting on sensitive topics and the suspension of numerous newspapers and magazines over recent months constitutes a blatant violation of the right to free information under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory. IPI therefore urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Kazem Shokris and Mohammad Mousavi-Khoeiniha, as well as two other journalists recently taken into custody – Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, editor-in-chief of Hoviat e Khish, and Morad Veissi of Salam – and to end the constant judicial harassment of liberal newspapers in Iran.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director
UPDATE:

On Wednesday, 4 August, Iran’s hard-line court, the Special Court for Clergy, banned “Salam” for five years and barred its publisher, Mohammad Mousavi-Khoeiniha, from press activities for three years.