Weekly paper banned, editor ordered to be flogged

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières - RSF) protested today at the ban on the regional weekly Chams-e-Tabriz and the sentencing of its editor, Ali-Hamed Iman, to eight months in jail and 74 lashes. "We ask you to reverse this sentence along with all the suspension orders issued against newspapers since April 2000," said RSF secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to the head of the Iranian judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi. Noting that exactly two years ago the then-conservative Iranian parliament had tightened the already very strict press law, he called on Iranian authorities to "amend this legislation to make it less severe." RSF learns that a court in the northern city of Tabriz banned the paper on 16 April and found editor Iman guilty of 15 offences, among them "insulting religion and the Prophet," "trying to stir up ethnic tension," "insulting the leaders of the regime" and "publishing lies." He has 20 days to appeal against the verdict. Four newspapers have been suspended so far this year in Iran, where 13 journalists are still in prison, despite the release of six in March.