Polling institute chief jailed

The head of the National Institute of Public Opinion, Behrouz Geranpayeh, was sent to prison on 16 October immediately after being interrogated by a Teheran court which accused him of spreading lies and fabricating official names, according to his lawyer. The government-run Institute was shut down earlier this month after publication of its poll showing 74.7% of Iranians wanted a resumption of relations with the United States. The head of the official news agency IRNA, which published the poll results, was also summoned by the country's conservative-dominated judiciary. __________ 30.09.02 - Head of official news agency summoned for reporting survey results Reporters Without Borders protested today against the summoning by Iran's conservative judiciary of the managing editor of the government-controlled news agency IRNA, Abdollah Nasseri, for having reported an opinion poll that showed Iranians wanted talks with the United States to resume. "Iran-US relations are a key issue in Iranian politics and censoring any mention of them is very serious," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard in a letter to Ayatollah Mahmoud Sharoudi, the head of the judiciary, asking for the 30 September summons of Nasseri to be dropped, along with those of other journalists. Reporters Without Borders protested at the end of May against a ban on publishing articles discussing Iran-US relations. IRNA reported on 22 September that a public opinion poll showed that 74.7% of Iranians wanted talks with the US to resume. The news appeared the day after the Guide of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had made an especially harsh attack on the United States. Three days later, the conservative daily Kayhan claimed the poll had been falsified. IRNA also sent a note to its clients killing the report, saying it had been put out in error. On 2 October, the country's reformist-led parliament called on Sharoudi to drop the summons of Nasseri and expressed concern about the summons of Behrouz Geranpayeh, head of one of the three public opinion firms that published the results and that was closed as a result. The two men were reportedly accused of having "published lies to excite public opinion." At the end of May, media discussion of Iran-US relations was banned after the main reformist daily, Nowrooz, suggested that top-level informal contacts between Iranian and US officials had recently taken place in Nicosia or Ankara. The issue of US-Iran relations has split the Iranian regime, against a background of the US fight against terrorism in the region, and the judiciary said on 25 May that raising the issue would be an "offence" and "against national interests." Reporters Without Borders notes that 10 journalists are imprisoned in Iran, serving sentences of between three and 11 years.