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TEHRAN, Aug 8 (AFP) - Iran's conservative courts dealt another grave blow to the embattled reform movement Tuesday, shutting down the last major pro-reform newspaper backing President Mohammad Khatami.
The judiciary ordered the closure of the Bahar daily, which is headed by a close Khatami ally and had been the last reformist paper standing after a widespread press crackdown launched by the courts in May. Said Pour-Azizi, the Bahar chief who also serves as press adviser to Khatami, told AFP his paper had been closed "for the same reason as all the others." He said he had been summoned to court earlier in the day and returned to find Bahar closed down by court order "to prevent us from committing any further offences." The judiciary later issued a statement saying Bahar had been banned because the paper had failed to act after previous complaints and had published "fabricated stories and outright lies." The conservative dominated courts have shut down twenty-two newspapers and magazines since a crackdown launched after their reformist rivals won control of parliament in February elections. Bahar on Tuesday had published comments allegedly made by Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza blasting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's order banning parliament from rolling back restrictions on the press. Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who heads the largest pro-reform party and led the reformist movement at the polls, said the decree was a "plot against parliament," Bahar said. Khamenei, who has almost unfettered power under the constitution, issued a rare personal directive Sunday saying modification of the press law was "not in the interest of the regime". The announcement, made at the opening of the session to debate the motion, sparked a scuffle on the floor of parliament, which in turn enraged the fiercest conservative partisans of Khamenei. Thousands of conservative protesters gathered outside parliament earlier Tuesday to support Khamenei's decision and call for the disqualification of those MPs who had challenged it. "The pro-American reformists and MPs hostile to the supreme guide must be expelled from parliament," demonstrators chanted. As organizers gave out posters with the portraits of Khamenei, Khatami and Islamic Iran's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, some protesters ripped off Khatami's image and threw it to the ground.
The rally ended peacefully after parliament speaker Mehdi Karubi asked demonstrators to end the protests and pledged: "Ours is also a revolutionary parliament." The interior ministry, headed by another close Khatami ally, also jumped into the fray Tuesday with a formal letter denouncing conservative-run state television and radio for covering the "illegal" rally. "Refrain from distributing news and information on any illegal gatherings or rallies," it said in the letter, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency. "We draw your attention to the fact that, in case of a repeated broadcast of such news, or other illegal gatherings, they will be faced with legal proceedings," the ministry said. During its evening news broadcast, state television responded: "It is noteworthy that this is the first time a ministry has allowed itself to give the clear order for news censorship." It said interference with its own work was illegal. Meanwhile MP Ahmad Pour-Nejati announced he was standing down as head of the new parliament's culture committee - which also deals with press matters - in protest against the conservative pressure. But the committee rejected Pour-Nejati's resignation, state television reported. Fellow reformist MP Majid Ansari, an old political hand here, urged the pro-Khatami camp to remain cool. "We are in need of calm," he said, "and self-control." Iran blasts U.S. interference in its press affairs Tehran on Tuesday also denounced comments emanating from Washington over press freedom in Iran, after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blocked parliament from liberalizing the press code, state radio said. "Iran's officials, people and MPs know the interests of their country very well and others must refrain from interfering in Iran's internal affairs," foreign ministry spokesperson Hamid-Reza Asefi said. He was reacting to comments by U.S. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher, who said Washington had "human rights" concerns over the future of the press here. "We do have very serious concerns about freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Iran," Boucher said Monday. "We would expect the government of Iran to uphold international human rights standards including the right to freedom of expression." Khamenei on Sunday barred the reformist parliament from rolling back tough press curbs put in place by the previous conservative-majority legislature in its waning days in office. |
They also denounced his brother's party as "hypocrites," the term usually used here for Iran's outlawed opposition movement, the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen.
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