Iran has lifted a ban on a leading reformist daily but closed down two weeklies. The Iranian government Sunday lifted the ban on Shargh which had been shut down last September by Iran’s press watchdog.
Shargh was Iran’s bestselling moderate newspaper until it was accused of blasphemy and insulting Iranian officials. After a series of warnings, the paper was shut down and its CEO fined just over US$1000. “The judge ordered the chief executive of the paper to pay a fine of 9 million rials [about AED3,720],” one of the paper’s directors, Mohammad Atrianfar, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to AFP, Shargh was shut down for printing a cartoon that officials found offensive to the president. The paper’s successor, the daily newspaper Roozegar, was later closed down for being too similar to Shargh. Radio Free Europe (RFE) last October reported that the Iranian Press Supervisory Committee had stated that Roozegar was warned that new media outlets cannot be similar in content to a suspended publication.
Authorities, meanwhile, have banned the magazine Salam Jonoub (Good morning south) and arrested its editor-in-chief Mohammad Bagher Abbasi in Bushehr, where Iran’s nuclear power plant is based, ADN Kronos International (AKI) has reported.
A court ordered that the magazine be closed on Monday and charged Abbasi with “discrediting the government.” Abbasi had presented his candidature for the 2004 parliamentary elections to Iran’s watchdog, the Guardians’ Council, in a reformist list but had not been allowed to run.
Kurdishinfo.com Monday reported that authorities closed Kurdish weekly Payame Kord (Kurdish message) and accused the magazine’s editor-in-chief Ardeshir Sadreddini of publishing false and biased news. Sadreddini, who was released on bail, has received death threats from a militant group called Young Revolutionaries who have accused him of “betraying the Islamic revolution” in articles published by the magazine, “offending religion” and “cooperating with non governmental organisations” — approximately the same charges pressed by magistrates who banned the weekly.
Iran’s hardline judiciary has closed down over 100 reformist and moderate publications and websites in recent years after the press had a brief high point under the reformist president Khatami.
Atrianfar told AFP that Shargh will go to press after the Persian new year, Noruz, on March 21. The paper had a daily circulation of about 100,000.
