Regime uses US threats as pretext to step up press freedom violations

Reporters Without Borders today voiced concern over a press crackdown in Iran that has included the temporary closure of a daily newspaper, a travel ban on a journalist, the censoring of a letter by parliamentarians criticising Ayatollah Khamenei's policies and the issuing of summonses to journalists. "Using the pretext of supposed American threats, the regime has clearly opted domestically to crack down on the news media, instead of developing and encouraging more freedom and democratising society," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said, noting that eight journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran. The daily Kayhan, the main mouthpiece of Islamist radicals, did not appear on the stands today. A one-day closure was imposed on the newspaper a few days ago by Said Mortazavi, the new Tehran prosecutor, for likening the mainly reformist parliamentarians to "cows." The Kayhan press group, which produces dozens of conservative publications, is controlled by the Supreme Guide, Ayatollah Khamenei, and has ties with the security services. Mohsen Sazgara, the editor of the reformist daily Jameh (which has been closed down), was banned from travelling outside of the country on 3 June. "Airport officials confiscated my passport and told me I couldn't leave Iran," he told Agence France-Presse. The day before, he was summoned to the security ministry and was told that the Supreme Council for National Security recently adopted a regulation banning certain senior figures from talking to the foreign media in Farsi. The travel ban appears to be a punishment for his giving interviews to foreign radio stations. A journalist with the (closed) daily Fath, Emadoldin Baghi, who was released from detention on 6 February, was also summoned and told about this decision. The Iranian authorities have always shown concern when certain journalists have given interviews to radio stations in Farsi criticising the regime. The Supreme Council for National Security, which is headed by President Mohammad Khatami, banned the news media at the end of last month from publishing a critical letter signed by more than 100 reformist parliamentarians. Addressed to the Supreme Guide, the letter urged him to stop resisting reforms to avoid endangering the Islamic Republic. It said: " Most of the people are discontented or disillusioned, most of the intellectuals are silent or emigrate and all the financial reserves are fleeing the country, which is encircled by foreign forces." No Iranian newspaper has published the letter, which was issued on 24 May. It was posted for a few hours on the reformist website Rouydad and the website of the student news agency ISNA. Now it is only available on Farsi-language websites based outside the country. Ten journalists (for the most part cinema specialists) have been summoned in recent weeks for questioning by Adareh Amaken, a department of the Tehran police thought to be linked with the intelligence services. During questioning, they were accused inter alia of possessing and selling films deemed "immoral." The journalists who were questioned were Golamreza Moussavi, editor of the monthly Cinema Jahan; Ali Moalem, editor of the monthly Doyay Tasvir; Feridon Jerani, editor of the weekly Cinema; Payam Fazlinejad, a journalist with the monthly Gozaresh-é-Film; Mohamad Hadi Karimi, the publisher of Cinema; Alireza Bazel, a journalist and translator with Hayat-é-No; Houshang Golmakani, a journalist with the monthly Film; Houshang Asadi, a journalist with Gozaresh-é-Film; Nushabeh Amiri, editor of Gozaresh-é-Film; and Khosro Dehgan, a film critic and president of the writers' association.