Journalist Hussein Saidpour freed on bail after being held for two days

The editor of the weekly Sepass, Hussein Saidpour, was released on bail today. He was arrested two days ago and taken to Evin prison on a charge of “ethnic insult” because one of the answers to a crossword in the latest issue was considered offensive by the inhabitants of the southwestern province of Lorestan. ----------------------------------------------------------- 28.11.2006 Two journalists detained, national weekly closed for “ethnic insult” Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrests of two journalists, Shirko Jahani and Hussein Saidpour, and the closure of a weekly newspaper amid mounting pressure on the media that has prompted five provincial newspapers to stop publishing in a gesture of protest. “The Iranian authorities have once again shown that repression is the only policy they know how to adopt towards the media,” the press freedom organisation said. “This harassment must stop. We call for the immediate release of Jahani and Saidpour.” Jahani, who is the correspondent of the Turkish news agency Euphrat in the northwestern city of Mahabad, was summoned on 27 November to the local prosecutor's office where he was immediately arrested on the city prosecutor's orders for writing critical articles that were published in the foreign press. Jahani also belongs to an organisation founded by fellow journalist Mohammad Sedigh Kabovand that defends human rights in the Kurdish part of Iran. Jahani's wife told Reporters Without Borders that he went on hunger strike after refusing to pay of bail of 5 million tumen (about 4,000 euros) in protest against the arbitrary nature of his arrest. He is currently held in Mahabad prison. Saidpour was arrested on 28 November and the national weekly he edits, Sepass (“Thanks”), was closed for an alleged “ethnic insult” in one of the answers to the crossword in the latest issue that was considered offensive by the inhabitants of the southwestern province of Lorestan. In an attempt to defuse tension as students staged protests against the newspaper, the Press Surveillance Commission ordered its closure and the Tehran prosecutor issued a warrant for Saidpour's arrest. He is reportedly being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Five pro-reform and independent weeklies in the northwestern province of Zandijan - Payam-e Zanjan, Bahar-e Zanjan, Seda-ye Zanjan, Alborz-e Khorram and Mowj-e Bidari - meanwhile announced in a joint statement that they have decided to suspend publication in protest against the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government's repressive policies towards the media, above all the restrictions and judicial harassment.