Iran
5 August 2005
Crackdown on Kurdish press following
clashes in Kurdistan
Reporters Without Borders today
condemned a wave of harassment of Kurdish journalists by local
authorities in Iranian Kurdistan, which has been hit by clashes in
recent weeks, and the closure of the daily Achti and the weekly Asou
at the behest of the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance.
"We condemn this crackdown on the
Kurdish press because Iranian Kurdistan has more need than ever of its
journalists in these times of great tension," the press freedom
organisation said. "We call on the authorities to stop the harassment
of Kurdish journalists and to lift the suspension of Achti and Asou."
Asou, which is published in both
Kurdish and Farsi, was closed by judicial officials in Sanandaj (the
capital of Kurdistan) on 3 August, probably because of its editorial
line and its coverage of the events shaking the region.
The closure of Achti followed,
probably for the same reasons. Published in Tehran in Kurdish, it had
recently received permission to change from a weekly to a daily. The
source of the orders for the closure of both newspapers was the
ministry of culture and Islamic guidance.
Several journalists are known to
have been arrested but, given the many arrests that have taken place
in the region, many more are probably being held. Roya Tolou, the
editor of the newspaper Resan, was detained by police in Sanandaj on 2
August. Ejlal Ghavami, a journalist with the weekly Payam-e mardom-e
Kurdestan, was also arrested the same day.
Other journalists have been
summoned to appear before local authorities for reasons that are
unknown but probably related to reports published in the past few
weeks.
Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand, Payam-e
mardom-e Kurdestan's editor, was asked to appear before a court in
Sanandaj yesterday. He did appear but without his lawyer, who is none
other than Abdolfattah Soltani, who was arrested on the orders of
Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi on 30 July.
This is not the first time Kabovand
has been harassed by local judicial officials. He was arrested and
taken before a court in Sanandaj on 15 June 2004 for "spreading
separatist ideas and publishing false reports" and the court ordered
the closure of his newspaper two weeks later.
Reporters
Without Borders |