Daily paper suspended after defying censorship over rebel ayatollah

An Iranian court suspended the reformist daily paper Azad on 11 July after it defied a ban on publishing anything about the resignation of the controversial prayer-leader of Ispahan, Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri (photo). "We urge the authorities to reverse this arbitrary and illegal suspension," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "Censoring comment on this subject is a serious matter. It especially undermines the exchange of ideas in Iran where for the past few years newspapers have played a major part." Reporters Without Borders protested in May again a ban on articles discussing relations between Iran and the United States. Seven publications have been suspended in Iran so far this year. The country's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the "Guide of the Islamic Revolution," is on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide list of predators of press freedom. Ten journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran. Teheran's Court 1410, known as "the press court," ordered the suspension of Azad for publishing an article about the resignation of Ayatollah Taheri. The move came the day after the country's Supreme National Security Council had forbidden the media from publishing anything either favourable or hostile to the ayatollah, hours after publication in the reformist press of an open letter from him which caused uproar amongst conservatives. In the letter, he announced his resignation in protest against what he called the "chaotic situation" in Iran, marked by "disappointment, unemployment, inflation, daily price rises, the gap between rich and poor, a sick economy, corrupt bureaucracy, bribery, embezzlement, growing drug use, official incompetence and weak political structures." He accused those in power of using hardline thugs to enforce their rule and said "society's dregs and fascists" were acting as "philosophers, sheriffs and judges." Deputy culture minister Shahan Shahidi-Moadab, who confirmed Azad's suspension, called on other publications to obey the censorship order. However, several conservative papers that criticised Taheri's resignation were not suspended. The 12 July issue of the major reformist daily Nowruz (photo), which had intended to print such material, published censored articles. Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman for Iran's Press Freedom Association, said the announcements of the Supreme National Security Council's secretariat were "illegal." The council, set up in 1989, is officially headed by President Mohamed Khatami, but its secretariat is controlled by a conservative cleric, Hassan Ruhani.