Mr. President, the Iranian people are not “the freest in the world” : open letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

26 September 2007

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders wrote today to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about claims he made during his visit to the United States to attend the annual UN General Assembly. The press freedom organisation hopes the Islamic Republic’s president will not break his promise to allow human rights organisations to visit Iran.

“Dear Mr. President,

Several journalists and representatives of international organisations including Reporters Without Borders questioned you about the deplorable human rights situation in Iran when you took part in a video news conference organised by the National Press Club in New York on 24 September. In response to criticism, you claimed that the Iranian people were “the freest in the world” and that these organisations were not familiar with the situation inside your country because they had never been there.

Mr. President, the facts are clear and the appalling record of press freedom violations in your country no longer need any comment. Since your last visit to the United Nations a year ago, 73 journalists have been arrested and no fewer than 20 news media have been censored. In a recent joint statement, more than 170 Iranian journalists complained of a marked deterioration in press freedom. Iran has for several years been the Middle East’s biggest prison for the press.

At this very moment, ten journalists are still in jail. They include Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed Hiva Botimar, who were sentenced to death in July. As a result of their work for Kurdish and foreign news media, they were convicted of being spies. We hope you will do everything to prevent their execution.

Mr. President, many journalists have been brought before the courts. Most of them have been charged with “violating national security” just for trying to report the news to the Iranian people. You claim that the media in Iran are free to criticise you or your government. The facts prove otherwise.

Some journalists pay a high price for being outspoken and their most elementary rights are flouted. This is the case for Said Matinpour of the weekly Yarpagh, who was arrested at his home in Zanjan on 28 May and was transferred to Evin prison two days later. He is now in solitary confinement in Evin’s security section 209. No formal charge has been brought against him although he has been held for more than 100 days, and he has not been allowed to receive visits from his family or his lawyer.

This is also the case for Soheil Assefi, a journalist who was arrested on 4 August when he went to a Tehran court in response to a summons. He has been charged with disseminating “false information liable to disturb public opinion.”

You referred during the news conference to the large number of newspapers in Iran. You said: “You know that on a daily basis we have many, many newspapers or the presence of newspapers in our country, and the number of those newspapers that are against the government in place right now are perhaps ten times larger than the newspapers that are pro-government.” Mr. President, these newspapers that you call “opposition” are above all in the service of the various clans within the ruling elite. They are not free, open and pluralist.

According to the secretary-general of the Association of Iranian Journalists, Badrolssadat Mofidi, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance recently cancelled the permits of more than 500 news media. Even if Iran has no bureau for prior censorship, there is a great deal of self-censorship. The editors of independent publications are often subjected to pressure and harassment by the intelligence services. Some have even been given lists of journalists they must not hire.

Your government still refuses to put an end to the state’s monopoly of broadcast media, and the possession of a satellite dish continues to be banned.

The Internet does not escape censorship either. Many websites are targeted, especially those dealing with politics or religion, but also the sites of international organisations such as Reporters Without Borders. Mr. President, the “ten million” Internet users you mentioned during the news conference only have access to one-sided news and information.

We would also like to mention the many obstacles that must be faced by local human rights organisations such as the Human Rights Defence Centre led by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, which has been awaiting a permit from the interior ministry since its creation in 2002. Ms. Ebadi continues to fight for press freedom by often defending journalists, as she defended Akbar Ganji.

Finally, the foreign media encounter many difficulties in visiting Iran and in operating there. The local correspondents of foreign media are also subjected to harassment and are often summoned for questioning by the intelligence services. Reporters Without Borders, for its part, has repeatedly requested visas to visit Iran in the course of the last 10 years without success. We hope that the invitations you issued during the news conference to all the organisations present will not prove to be empty words. We assure you that we would not fail to take up your invitation.

Sincerely,

Robert Ménard
Secretary-General

A Big Liar!

I,m so sorry. he is really a big liar.

Do you think it is dream?

By Roozbeh Mirebrahimi

In New York City everybody is focusing on Mahmud Ahmadinejad travel to NY next week. They don’t have good feelings about him and I heard much about Ahmadinejad  from people here.

They are angry at Ahmadinejad. Here you can find many people always remembering 9/11. I’m sure that place (ground zero) is very important for American people and specially for  New Yorkers.

When I came to New York, on the first day I went there and visited “ground zero”. It was a very sad scene.

When you are visiting there, you understand why the American people became sad after 9/11.

I’m thinking about that time in this city. And also I’m thinking about all victims in the world.

Why somebody should kill other humans for any reason?

When will the world always opt for peace?

Do you think it is a dream?

But I know this man cannot understand what “ground zero” for American is. Maybe he should visit many place like this place in Iran, specially “Khavaran”. The place where many executed Iranian political prisoner are buried.

 

Rafsanjani election ups political stakes in Iran

By Robert Tait in Tehran

 The Guardian
Wednesday September 5, 2007
 

One of Iran’s most illustrious politicians, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, dramatically increased his influence yesterday by winning control of a powerful clerical body in a development that could change the course of the country’s leadership.Mr Rafsanjani, a conservative pragmatist and former president, was elected head of the experts’ assembly after overcoming a determined rightwing effort to block him. He received 41 votes, while his opponent, hardliner Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who ran as the “stop Rafsanjani” candidate in an election triggered by the death in July of the assembly’s previous chairman, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Meshkini, received 34.

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Hard Times Help Leaders in Iran Tighten Grip

Newsha Tavakolian/Polaris, for The New York Times

Women shop at the Tehran bazaar. For months, average Iranians have endured economic hardships, political repression and international isolation.

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

New York Times

Published: September 5, 2007

TEHRAN, Sept. 4 — Rents are soaring, inflation hovers around 17 percent, and 10 million Iranians live below the poverty line. The police said they shut 20 barbershops for men in Tehran last week because they offered inappropriate hairstyles, and women have been banned from riding bicycles in many places, as a crackdown on social freedoms presses on.

For months now, average Iranians have endured economic hardships, political repression and international isolation as the nation’s top officials remained defiant over Iran’s nuclear program. But in a country whose leaders see national security, government stability and Islamic values as inextricably entwined, problems that usually would constitute threats to the leadership are instead viewed as an opportunity to secure its rule.

Paradoxically, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic missteps and the animosity generated in the West by his aggressive posture on the nuclear issue have helped Iran’s leaders hold back what they see as corrupting foreign influences, by increasing the country’s economic and political isolation, said economists, diplomats, political analysts, businessmen and clerics interviewed over the past two weeks.

Pressure from the West, including biting economic sanctions, over Iran’s nuclear program and its role in Iraq have also empowered those pushing the harder line.

“The leader is concerned that any effort to make the country more manageable will lead to reform and will undermine his authority,” said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and former government official of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The effort to keep Iran’s doors to the West sealed tight was on display on Sunday, when Mr. Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had developed 3,000 centrifuges and mocked the West for trying to press Iran to stop uranium enrichment and slow its nuclear program.

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Ministry of Culture Bans Rafsanjani’s Memoir?

By Roozbeh Mirebrahimi -Roozonline-  2007.09.03

Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani joined the long list of “banned” authors after the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance confiscated and collected from bookstores the latest installment of his multi-volume memoir, entitled “Towards Fate.”

Since yesterday, various news agencies released unofficial reports about the book’s suspension. The Ministry of Culture denied the accusation, but said in a statement that the book will notbe published until an acknowledgement is received from the book’s publisher, the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works. In an unprecedented move, a publishing official asked Ayatollahs Khameni and Mousavi Ardebili along with Mir Hossein Mousavi to confirm the content of Rafsanjani’s memoir.

 The controversy began when hardliner Kayhan’s editor, Hossein Shariatmadi, launched a relentless attack against Hashemi Rafsanjani. Suspension rumors were confirmed after a website close to the administration, Raja News, released a report confirming the suspension of Rafsanjani’s memoir.

Raja News wrote, “In ‘Towards Fate,’ which was published without an official permit from the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works, Hashemi Rafsanjani quotes Imam Khomeini several times. A decision has been made to stop the book’s publication and distribution.”

 

According to Raja News, “The decision will be implemented following the book’s initial publication, because the law makes it clear that any quotes referenced to Imam Khomeini or the supreme leader must be verified prior to publication, by either the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works or the Center for the Complication and Publication of Supreme Leader’s Works.”

 Raja News continues, “As such, the publication of this memoir was ‘illegal’ or ‘beyond law’ in the first place.” Fars News Agency confirmed Raja News by quoting a Ministry of Culture official: “The book ‘Towards Fate’ will not be published unless a verification is received from the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works.”

In a related development, Mir Shekari, who works at the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini’s Works, told the Mehr News Agency, “The content of this book is very sensitive, so the supreme leader, Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili, and Mir Hossein Mousavi must share their opinion about it.”

 The memoir’s most controversial part is a quote on page 173 where Rafsanjani writes: “An MP suggested quitting the slogan ‘Death to America and USSR.’ I said, ‘we have already made that decision and Imam [Khomeini] supports it as well. We are waiting for the proper time.’”

Will President Bush bomb Iran?

By Tim Shipman in Washington

02/09/2007

In a nondescript room, two blocks from the American Capitol building, a group of Bush administration staffers is gathered to consider the gravest threat their government has faced this century: the testing of a nuclear weapon by Iran.

The United States, no longer prepared to tolerate the risk that Iranian nuclear weapons will be used against Israel, or passed to terrorists, has already launched a bombing campaign to destroy known Iranian nuclear sites, air bases and air defence sites. Iran has retaliated by cutting off oil to America and its allies, blockading the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf bottleneck, and sanctioned an uprising by Shia militias in southern Iraq that has shut down 60 per cent of Iraq’s oil exports.The job of the officials from the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Departments of Homeland Security and Energy, who have gathered in an office just off Massachusetts Avenue, behind the rail terminus, Union Station, is to prevent a spike in oil prices that will pitch the world’s economy into a catastrophic spin.

The good news is that this was a war game; for those who fear war with Iran, the less happy news is that the officials were real. The simulation, which took four months, was run by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close links to the White House. Its conclusions, drawn up last month and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, have been passed on to military and civilian planners charged with drawing up plans for confronting Iran.

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Iran Claims Progress on Uranium Enrichment

By REUTERS 

Published: September 2, 2007

 TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran is running more than 3,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium and is installing more every week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, in comments likely to fuel Western fears Tehran is seeking an atomic bomb.Western experts say 3,000 machines running smoothly for long periods at supersonic speeds could make enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb in about a year, if Iran wanted, and form the basis for “industrial-scale” production of nuclear fuel.But an International Atomic Energy Agency report issued on Friday said Iran remained well short of 3,000 centrifuges and that its rate of enrichment was still far below capacity.The report also indicated the pace of centrifuge installation had slowed markedly since April, when Ahmadinejad first announced “industrial” capacity.Iran has repeatedly dismissed talk of a slowdown.“We have more than 3,000 centrifuges working and every week a new set is installed,” Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. Other Iranian news agencies also carried his comments.Centrifuges are set up in interlinked networks or “cascades” of 164 machines each.

Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, insists its goals are peaceful and says it wants to master technology only to make fuel for a network of atomic power plants it plans.

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Did Ransanjani go to black list?

Today I heard and read news from Iran that it was very interest for me.

I read the ministry of Iranian government which is named “Ershad” banned Hashemi Rafsanjani’s memorial book by issue an order.After a few hours an official of this ministry denial this order but he said one organization which publisher for the Khomeini’s books and lectures should allow after that Rafsanjani’s memorial can publish.

This is so strange during the Islamic revolution period.But when Rafsanjani was Iranian president his government banned many books in iran.and his second “Ershad” minister was radical Muslim who was senior membership of a radical Islamic group (Moutalefeh islamy).

I think the Rafsanjani has never thought one time in Islamic Republic banned his book!

Iran’s Dylan on the Lute, With Songs of Sly Protest

By NAZILA FATHI The New Yourk Times

Published: September 1, 2007 

TEHRANHE: plays the setar, a traditional Persian lute, and is a master of classical Persian literature and poetry. But the sounds he draws from the instrument, along with his deep voice and his playful but subtly cutting lyrics about growing up in an Islamic state, have made Mohsen Namjoo the most controversial, and certainly the most daring, figure in Persian music today. Some call him a genius, a sort of Bob Dylan of Iran, and say his satirical music accurately reflects the frustrations and disillusionment of young Iranians. His critics say his music makes a mockery of Persian classical and traditional music as he constantly blends it with Western jazz, blues and rock. Mr. Namjoo, 31, is a singer, composer and musician, but most of all, his fans say, he is a great performer. “I wanted to save Persian music,” he said in an interview at one of his studios in Tehran. “It does not belong to the present time and cannot satisfy the younger generation. The fact is that Persian music is very close to other styles, and it is possible to mix in other styles with a little shrewdness.”

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