New conservative offensive : Two newspapers suspended, arrest warrant against a journalist, official news agency threatened with prosecution

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the multi-pronged offensive against press freedom carried out by the Iranian justice system in the past week: suspension of two pro-reform newspapers, a threat of prosecution against the official news agency IRNA, and an arrest warrant against pro-reform journalist Massoud Behnoud. Reporters Without Borders is also concerned about the arrest of Nasser Zarafshan, lawyer for the relatives of a number of intellectuals and journalists killed in 1998. "One has the impression that these measures constitute a declaration of war by the justice system on the reform movement ", Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Ménard said. "We condemn these measures in their entirety, which have been adopted at a time of extreme tension in Iran", Ménard said. He added that, "we call on the chief of the judiciary, Mahmoud Sharoudi, to rescind all these sanctions which once again show the justice system's profound contempt for freedom of expression". Reporters Without Borders recalls that the "Guide of the Islamic Republic", Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide list of predators of press freedom. Ten journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran and more than 10 publications have been closed in less than three months by the justice system. The most recent measure in the latest offensive came on 8 August, when the reformist daily Ayineh-é-Jonoub was suspended a week after its first appearance by Teheran's Court 1410, known as "the press court". One of the reasons given for this measure was the recent conviction of its editor Mohammad Dadfar for "propaganda against the regime". Judicial officials also ordered the suspension of a second reformist daily, Rouz-é-No, because of the similarity of its name with that of a newspaper closed last month, Nowrouz, despite the fact that Rouz-é-No had obtained al the necessary documentation for publication and was due to have begun appearing next week. Saïd Mortazavi, the press court's judge, said this newspaper "cannot be published until the Nowrouz daily's ban is lifted six months later". On 7 August, the Teheran revolutionary court threatened to open proceedings against the official news agency IRNA as a result of its having "illegally" published a press release issued by an opposition party, the Movement for the Liberation of Iran (MLI). The court explained that the release should not have been reported by the news agency because of the provisional status of the sentences imposed on the party and its members. At the end of July, the court have banned the party and sentenced 33 of its members to prison sentences. In its 3 August statement, the MLI called this sentence "unexpected and astonishing". The same day, Nasser Zarafshan, lawyer for relatives of intellectuals and journalists killed in 1998, was arrested as he was leaving his home. Last March, a military court found him guilty of "disseminating information from the case file" and sentenced him to five years imprisonment. The appeal court had confirmed the sentence in July. Zarafshan had been arrested in December 2000 after giving a speech in the city of Chiraz in which he said the intelligence services had murdered five Iranian intellectuals in late 1998 in Teheran: Majid Charif, an editorialist with the monthly Iran-é-Farda, writer-journalists Mohamad Mokhtari and Mohamad Jafar Pouyandeh, and a couple, Darioush et Parvaneh Forouhar, both freedom of expression activists. During his trial, Zarafshan said he could not have revealed classified secrets because the intelligence services had admitted their involvement in these murders. On 5 August 2002, a warrant was issued for the arrest of pro-reform journalist Massoud Behnoud, who writes for Adineh, Neshat and Asr-é-Azadegan. He had been arrested on 9 August 2000 and was released on bail on 16 December 2000, shortly before the start of his trial. He was accused of "threat to national security", "cooperation with foreign media" and "insulting the Supreme Guide", Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. On 10 September 2001, the appeal court upheld his 19-month prison sentence.