European Union urged to act in defence of press freedom

Reporters Without Borders said today it was concerned that the tense situation in Iran was leading to a further crackdown on the media and called on the European Union, which will shortly have talks with the regime about human rights, to insist that freedom of expression be respected. The organisation's secretary-general, Robert Ménard, called for the immediate release of imprisoned journalists Behrouz Gheranpayeh, Hossein Ghazian and Abbas Abdi, as well as nine others who are in jail. Geranpayeh, head of the National Institute of Public Opinion, who also worked on the now-closed newspaper Nowrooz, was arrested on 16 October and sent to Evin prison, near Teheran. He was accused of "spying" and collaborating with the exiled armed People's Mujahideen movement. His wife has since only been allowed to visit him once, in a judge's office, and a date for his trial has not been set. Ghazian, one of the Ayandeh public opinion institute's directors and also a Nowrooz journalist, was arrested on 31 October and taken to the same prison. Abdi, another Ayandeh director and former editor of the now-closed daily paper Salam who has worked on many pro-reform newspapers, was arrested at his home on 4 November. The head of court no. 1410 (known as the press court), Judge Said Mortazavi, accused Ayandeh of receiving money from the US polling firm Gallup "or from a foreign embassy." Ghazian and Abdi will be tried by the court on 1 December. Their lawyers said they had not been allowed to see the case files. These three arrests came after the publication on 22 September by one of Iran's official news agencies, IRNA, of a poll by Ayandeh and the National Institute of Public Opinion showing that 74.4% of Iranians favoured a resumption of ties with the United States. On 24 November, more than 100 journalists sent a petition to the conservative-dominated judiciary calling for the release of the three men, who they called "political prisoners." Students began demonstrating on 9 November against a death sentence imposed on an intellectual, Hashem Aghajari, who had spoken up in June against Islamic fundamentalism. Their protests became increasingly political and called for more freedom and the release of "political prisoners." The judiciary announced on 25 November that Aghajari's death sentence would be reviewed. Judge Mortazavi has twice in recent weeks summoned newspaper editors and ordered them not to print any more about the public opinion poll case or the student demonstrations. A court in Ghavzin, north of Teheran, suspended the weekly Nameh Ghavzin for three months on 21 November for "inciting young people to immorality and indecency" and fined it three million rials (about 1 940 euros) for "undermining revolutionary sentiment." Three journalists were beaten by Islamic extremists on 22 November as they were covering a gathering of 5,000 people marking the anniversary of the murder of four opposition intellectuals in late 1998. Several hundred extremists attacked the crowd, hitting people with sticks and fists while police stood by. The families of the murdered four had told the gathering they would petition the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate their deaths.