Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in IRAN. New York, April 21, 2000—On April 19, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a biting verbal attack against Iran’s reformist press, which continues to face fierce pressure from hard-line political forces. (Click here for CPJ’s latest protest letter.)
Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in IRAN New York, August 4, 2000 — Iranian parliamentarians will debate proposed amendments to the country’s press law when the new Majles (parliament) opens in Tehran on Sunday, according to international news reports. The current Majles is dominated by reformist delegates who broadly support President…
By Joel CampagnaRoyal succession and rubber-stamp elections set the tone for a year in which Middle Eastern and North African governments continued to restrict press freedoms through a combination of censorship, intimidation, and media monopoly. Ballots in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen produced few surprises as longtime rulers stayed in power and maintained formidable obstacles…
The Iranian press was again the main battleground in a bitter power struggle between reformist president Muhammad Khatami and Iran’s conservative clerical establishment, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the Islamic Republic. With crucial parliamentary elections slated for February 2000, the conservative-controlled judiciary pressed ahead with a steady campaign of repression against reformist…
Since Israel began turning over parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) six years ago, its repression of the local press has noticeably declined. The censorship, intimidation, and arbitrary arrests of Palestinian journalists that marked full-fledged Israeli occupation are now practiced by Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and…
New York, March 14, 2000 — A leading reformist newspaper publisher who was shot in the face on March 12 is battling for his life in a Tehran hospital. Saeed Hajjarian, 47, an advisor to President Mohammad Khatami who also publishes the newspaper Sobh-e Emrooz, which has consistently criticized Iran’s hard-line religious rulers, may have…