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"As Fragile as a Crystal Glass"

Press Freedom in Iran

I. SUMMARY

Press freedom and state regulation of the press have emerged as crucial issues in the struggle for power between reformists and conservatives in Iran today. The independent press is the preeminent mouthpiece of the reform movement, and thus a target for conservatives. Since coming to power in August 1997, President Mohammad Khatami has been credited with presiding over greater freedom of the press and more open public discussion on a wide range of issues. But while the Iranian press has displayed great diversity and vibrancy, basic legal safeguards for freedom of expression, the right to which is enshrined in international law, are lacking. As a consequence, the press remains vulnerable to the shifting currents of Iranian politics, and journalists, writers and editors continue to be subject to recurrent waves of repression.

Mohammad Khatami is no stranger to the contentious area of regulating the press. Between 1989 and 1992 he served as minister of culture and Islamic guidance, but was forced to resign in protest against the government's extra-legal punitive actions against newspapers and journalists. The problems which led to Khatami's resignation as a minister in 1992 persist today. How these issues are resolved will provide an important indicator of President Khatami's abilities to achieve substantial change with respect to human rights protection generally. The president has spoken out in favor of greater press freedom, but he has also encouraged the press to be self-regulating and to respect the "sensitivities of the nation." If reformers are able to strengthen legal safeguards for press freedom through legislative reform, that would be a strong indication of progress in this area. This has not yet been achieved.

The independent press plays an important role in contemporary Iranian political life. Unlike the local broadcast media, which remains in the hands of conservatives, many newspapers have taken independent editorial positions and have become forums for the debate about the future direction of the Islamic republic. In the absence of legally recognized opposition political parties, independent newspapers raise public awareness about alternative viewpoints and are the major mobilizing tool of reformists seeking greater respect for rights within the Islamic Republic.

In 1998, powerful conservative forces within the government clamped down on the relative openness that followed Khatami's election, closing down newspapers and magazines, imprisoning editors and journalists, and unleashing gangs of thugs to beat up journalists and ransack newspaper offices in the name of orthodoxy. These measures created a climate of fear within the media, and raised questions about the ability of the popularly elected president to implement protections for press freedom, an important part of his election platform. The Khatami administration can be credited for speaking out against and beginning to take steps to counter the violent activities of enforcers of religious orthodoxy with links to the government itself. The administration has publicly condemned these activities on a number of occasions, and has made some tangible progress in establishing accountability for such acts. The men who physically attacked two reformist ministers in September 1998 were convicted in January 1999 of assault and sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to three years. In early 1999, the government exposed official involvement in the killings of dissidents and intellectuals at the end of 1998 and forced the removal of the minister of information and several of his deputies. In August 1999 a government investigation held a number of law enforcement officials as well as civilian vigilantes responsible for a violent pre-dawn assault on a Tehran University dormitory the month before in which one student was reportedly killed and many injured.

Conservatives nevertheless remain determined to stifle press freedom, abetted by the violent enforcers known as the ansar-e hezbollahi (partisans of the party of God). Reformers still face strong opposition from those in the leadership who hold differing views about the place of rights and freedoms in Iranian society. Respect for the right to freedom of expression continues to be seriously deficient in law and practice in Iran. Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the powerful Head of the Judiciary until August 1999, had directly challenged statements by President Khatami and others calling for greater press freedom, stressing the need for strict limits in this area. In May 1999, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ataollah Mohajerani narrowly survived an attempt to impeach him launched by conservative members of parliament who objected to the relative openness of the Iranian press under his stewardship.

After failing to impeach the minister most identified with press liberalization, the parliament turned in early July to revising the Press Law to impose greater control over the activities of journalists. On July 7, the same day that the proposed amendments to the law were introduced in the parliament, another reform-minded newspaper, Salam, was closed, and the publisher subsequently convicted by the Special Court for the Clergy on charges of misinforming the public. An editor of another newspaper was held for weeks in incommunicado detention. The press crackdown triggered demonstrations and clashes between students protesting these restrictions and supporters of the conservative clerics. Over three days in mid-July, Tehran and other major cities witnessed civil unrest that was among the worst since the turmoil of the 1979 revolution.

These developments demonstrate how crucial it is to institute legal and administrative safeguards to protect press freedom. Otherwise the press will remain hostage to such pressures and individual writers or editors will be prone to arbitrary persecution. In particular need of revision are article 24 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, which allows broadly conceived limits on expression by declaring that restrictions are appropriate when the material in question "is detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam," and the Press Law of 1985, which contains similar broadly-worded language giving the government license to clamp down on press freedom more or less at will.

The ability of the press to serve as an avenue of free expression has seesawed dramatically since President Khatami took office. The present debate over authorized state regulation of the press in Iran centers on four areas: firstly, administrative closure of newspapers; secondly, decisions by judges to close publications; thirdly, the use of Revolutionary Courts and Special Clergy Courts to punish writers and journalists; and fourthly, attempts to legislate further limits on free expression. The absence of legal protections against the arbitrary use of these multiple judicial and administrative techniques to stifle free expression means that the relative autonomy presently enjoyed by the Iranian press may be transitory. The events of July 1999 show just how vulnerable newspapers, magazines, and journals are to arbitrary closure, and publishers, editors, and journalists to persecution. Unless legal and administrative safeguards are instituted and strengthened, we may see a reversal of recent trends toward liberalization and a decline in press freedom in Iran.

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