RUZGAR
FACED THE SAME END AS SHARGH
The staff
of the daily Shargh, which caused many debates in the
country, started to publish a new daily. The new daily
called Ruzgar, which made its debut on October 16, was,
however, put immediately under the focus of the Ministry of
Culture and Islamic Guidance.
The
publication of the reformist Shargh newspaper was suspended
on September 12, 2006 by a court verdict. Farzanah Kharqani,
editor of the Shargh, and his associates started to publish
the new daily “Ruzgar” which is warned by the Ministry of
Culture and Islamic Guidance just after its first issue. In
the warning, it is said that “the license of the newspaper
does not include the political news, the newspaper should
not, therefore, publish such news and the current format
should be changed”. Following this warning, the publication
of the second issue had to be delayed for 3 days and the
daily started to be published after having got the permit
from the ministry in question for the “publication of the
political news”.
This
development caused some assessments in the reformist press
circles such as “the Ruzgar faced the same end as the Shargh”
and it constitutes a good example of the pressure on the
Iranian press. It is wondered what kind of bans will be
imposed on Ruzgar in the coming days.
Meanwhile,
the People’s Court of Tehran handed down a ruling on October
22 in the case where Mansur Mozaffari, the managing editor
of the daily Aftabe Yazd, is tried with the accusations of
“making slandering propaganda against the Islamic regime”
and “publishing untrue materials”. At the end of the
hearing, Mozaffiri is acquitted of making propaganda, while
he is found guilty of “publishing untrue materials” by the
Press Jury.
The
colleagues of Mansur Mozaffari, who is the victim of heavy
censorship of the Ahmadinejad’s regime against the press,
think that Mozaffari will not be able to get rid of the
accusation in question easily and they worry that Mozaffari
may be exposed to the sanctions implemented against the well-known
reformist journalist Isa Saharkhiz. As it can be recalled,
Isa Saharkhiz, who was the Director General in the Ministry
of Culture and Islamic Guidance during the office of the
former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, was sentenced on
August 26, 2006 to four-year-imprisonment for having written
negative articles against M. Ahmadinejad and he was banned
from working in an official position for 5 years. Isa
Saharkhiz is known with his severe criticisms he made
fearlessly against Ahmadinejad and the policies of the
government. The monthly publication “Aftab” and the daily
newspaper Akbare Eqhtesadi, which are owned by I. Saharkhiz,
are closed down indefinitely upon the order of the President.
Upon the arrest of Isa Saharkhiz, who is known with his
closeness to the former President Khatami and the closing
down of his publications, Khatami as well as the reformist
representatives in the Iranian Majles reacted severely
against Ahmadinejad; but this reaction was not taken into
consideration by the government disobeying the laws.
