Article 19(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides clear obligations for Iran to uphold freedom of expression, including the freedom "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds." The Iranian constitution upholds the right to free expression with the qualification that expression must uphold "Islamic principles" and the "interests of the people." These loosely defined directives provide the authorities with broad latitude to suppress newspapers, books and other forms of expression of which they disapprove.18
Although controlled by the clerical leadership, the mainstream press has featured spirited exchanges between supporters of the two major candidates. However, dissident voices have been confined to the lower circulation, and restricted independent press.
For example, magazine editor Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, whose candidacy was vetoed by the Council of Guardians, stated in March 1997, "As soon as one speaks about freedom of speech, press freedom or respect for the people's views, he is accused of weakening Islam and revolutionary values." Tabarzadi had been detained in November 1996 for continuing to distribute copies of his magazine, Payam-e Daneshju (Message of the Student), after he had been banned from running it by a court decision in July 1996. He criticized "the growth of sanctimonious piety in society" that has "turned the law into a club to hit the independent press."19
The recent pattern of banning newspapers and prosecuting editors and writers critical of the government continues. In April 1997, a court in Mashhad convicted Mohammad Sadegh Javadi-Hessar, the editor of Tous magazine, for "causing public confusion." The court banned him from journalism for ten years and fined him the equivalent of U.S.$1,000 for publishing an article critical of the Islamization program in Iranian universities. In an interview with the Reuter news agency after the sentence, Javadi-Hessar stated, "Most of our friends believe we arebeing pressured because Tous is the only paper that supports [presidential candidate Mohammad] Khatami in this region."20
In January, Karamollah Tavahodi, a Kurdish writer in Mashhad, was detained and sentenced to one year in prison because of the content of volume five of his work, The Historical Movement of Kurds in Khorassan. The book had been banned prior to his detention. Faraj Sarkouhi, the editor of Adineh magazine, was arrested in February and detained on charges of attempting to leave the country illegally. His brother Esmaeil, arrested on the same charges, was released. Sarkouhi has been denied permission to meet with his family members, his lawyer, or foreign diplomats who have requested to see him.
Since 1995 several newspapers and magazines have been closed down, either by administrative order or through punitive court actions initiated by the government in response to critical articles they published. These include Jahan-e Eslam, Omid, Takapou, Gouzaresh, Gardoun, Bahar, Azin-e Mehr, and Zendehroud, in addition to Payam-e Daneshju and Tous.
Further pressure on freedom of expression has been exerted by the death in uncertain circumstances of two prominent intellectuals. In January, Professor Ahmad Tafazzoli of Tehran University was found dead in Punak, a suburb northwest of Tehran. Hamshahri reported that "a halo of ambiguity surrounded Dr. Tafazzoli's death."21 A prominent Iranian writer told Human Rights Watch, speaking on condition of anonymity, that regardless of its cause, Professor Tafazzoli's death had created a climate of fear at the university, adding, "No one would now dare to speak out publicly against the government's policies."22
In February 1997, Ebrahim Zalzadeh, publisher of the independent magazine Mayar, disappeared in uncertain circumstances. His body was discovered in the morgue of the city coroner of Tehran on March 29. Members of his family believe that the authorities were responsible for his death, in what may be part of a pattern of repression directed against independent writers and publishers in Iran. Mr. Zalzadeh was one of eight writers and publishers who had offered to share in the punishment of Abbas Maroufi, the editor of Gardoun magazine, who was sentenced to receive twenty-five lashes in February 1996 for writing an article critical of the government.
In February 1997, the 15 Khordad Foundation, a quasi-independent institution based in Tehran, increased the bounty on the head of the threatened British novelist Salman Rushdie from the equivalent of U.S.$2 million to $2.5 million. The increase in the bounty was seen as a product of intense political rivalries in Iran in the run-up to contested elections. President Rafsanjani declined to condemn the increased bounty, or to make any comment on the continuing threat to the author's life arising from the publication of his 1989 novel, The Satanic Verses. Iran's leaders today appear to treat the Rushdie issue primarily as a venue for displaying defiance at international pressure and to pressure their political opponents.
The suspicious deaths and harsh punishments handed down by courts against some writers and editors have created a climate in which a broad range of government critics are fearful and less willing to speak out. In an interview with Al-Hayat newspaper in February 1997, Ezzatollah Sahhabi stated, "We politicians and educated people also feel that there is neither security nor safety. Every now and again the regime raises the issue of a cultural assault and uses it as an excuse to remove someone or suspend a cultural publication."23
Even within the officially supported mainstream media, which is divided between editorial supporters of Nateq-Nouri and Khatami in the presidential election, there has been controversy over allegations of bias and violations of election laws. The law bans newspapers or broadcast media that receive funding from official sources from making propaganda on behalf of any individual candidate. This has not stopped highly favorable coverage of the two candidates. Iranian radio and television, which is controlled by supporters of Nateq-Nouri, has, perhaps not surprisingly, been dominated in recent months by news stories about Nateq-Nouri, featuring what amount to his campaign speeches around the country. Meanwhile, coverage of Khatami, his main rival, has been sparse. On the other hand, the largest-circulation national newspaper, Hamshahri, owned by the Tehran municipality, whose mayor Gholamhossain Karbaschi is one of the founders of the pro-Khatami Servants of Construction, has been criticized for printing special advertising supplements supporting Khatami's candidacy.
The more conservative members of the Council of Guardians, like Ayatollah Jannati, have made pointed statements about the need for the election rules to be strictly adhered to by the press. On May 6, 1997, Hamshahri was obliged to explain its actions in response to an official complaint from the committee for the supervision of electoral campaigning, established by the Council of Guardians to observe adherence to the regulations. Hamshahri denied that it had disregarded an order from the leader categorically banning electoral publicity by newspapers that are publicly funded, and said that it had stopped issuing such publicity after the leader's instruction was issued on April 27, 1997.
Salam newspaper, a Tehran daily that has often run into controversy because of its criticism of the government, has also been a supporter of Khatami's candidacy. Since May 5, 1997, apparently succumbing to official pressure, Salam has halted its heavy coverage of election-related issues and stopped reporting on them altogether.
Within the clerical leadership there is a real contest between two candidates with contrasting views on several major issues, including the economy and government enforcement of social mores. But this competition is far from being inclusive of all of Iranian society. As Freedom Movement leader Ebrahim Yazdi, who was disqualified from running for president, told Al-Hayat in February 1997, "Even in totalitarian regimes, the parties which support the regime have complete freedom...our movement however, is forbidden from expressing its ideas and views through its own media organs, and is not given any facilities for undertaking activities at its headquarters. The security organs hamper all our activities and exert some pressure on us, despite the fact that the constitution guarantees general freedoms.24
18 See, Middle East Watch (now Human Rights Watch/Middle East), Guardians of Thought, Limits on Freedom of Expression in Iran (New York, Human Rights Watch, August 1993).
19 Kar-va Kargar (Tehran), March 11, 1997, as reported by BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, March 20, 1997.
20 Reuter, "Iran court bans editor from press work for ten years," April 10, 1997.
21 Hamshahri, January 18,1997.
22 Human Rights Watch telephone interview, March 1997.
23 Al-Hayat (London), February 11, 1997, as reported by BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, February 13, 1997.
24 Al-Hayat, February 6, 1997, as reported by BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, February 8, 1997.