Majlis Reps: Stop the Threats, Limitations and Censorship Imposed on the Press

Following the increase in pressure on news sources inside Iran, which includes those on ILNA labor news agency, 15 members of the Majlis (Parliament) issued a statement to the minister of culture and Islamic Guidance requesting that “All pressures, threats, imitations and bottlenecks created for certain press, and publication, both electronic or otherwise, should be removed.”

The limitations on the news agencies initially came in the form of an announcement by the ministry of “authorized news sources”. Today, it has come to the point where legislators have written to the minister of culture and guidance, “Based on documents and other evidence from the ministry that you lead, certain publications and news agencies have been put under pressure and bottlenecks created for them on fabricated excuses by imposing conditions for their operations, limiting their activities, and threats through written or verbal notices, forcing them to exercise various forms of censorship and withholding the publication of events by depriving them of some services and resources such as the limitations imposed on ILNA news agency.”

The groundwork for limiting the official news sources began with a short news item in Mehr news agency, which is affiliated to the Islamic Propagation Organization (Sazeman-e Tablighat-e Eslami). This news agency claimed that “Most news reports that are referenced by human rights organization that call on action against the Iran, are those that come from ISNA student news agency student news agency and ILNA labor news agency, both Iranian news sources.” Mehr claimed that these two news sources provided the raw material for international human rights groups to organize their activities against Iran.

Following that, Aftab news website wrote that the press deputy at the ministry of guidance announced an effort to clean up the news agencies and their news. Soon after that there were reports that the Majlis too had a bill that aimed at cleaning up the news agencies.

But even before a law had been passed in this regard, reporters from ILNA news agency were barred from participating in president Ahmadinejad’s media conferences, after which a number of its reporters were fired on the excuse of staff reduction. Nobody explained why this staff reduction applied only to the reporters of the political section of the news agency. One informed source did tell Aftab that this took place because of “pressure from above”. Soon after that, a number of ILNA editors too submitted their resignations.

With that background, the head of the Majlis, Haddad Adel read out the letter of the 15 law makers who had asked minister of guidance Saffar Herandi to end the limitations imposed on the press. The letter was signed b y Akbar Elmi from Tabriz, Paknejad from Yazd, Omdivar Rezai from Masjid Suleiman, Godratollah ALikhani from Buvien Zahra, Mohammad Ghomi from Pakdasht, Dariush Ghanbai from Ilam, Rasool Sedighi from Banab, Mortezavi, Hadi Haghshenas from Bandar Anzali, Gerami Moghadam from Bojnoord, Alireza Mahboob from Tehran, SOheila Jolodarzadeh from Tehran, Medi Poorfatemi from Dashti va Tangestan, Mehrangiz Morovati from Khalkhal and Nasser Nassiri from Garmi.

The letter concluded that, “Since the press and publications are free to express themselves within the confines of the law and no authority has the right to exert any pressure on them or force them into exercising censorship, it is appropriate that measures be taken to remove any such pressures and limitations.”

ILNA labor news agency began its work in Iran in 2002 with the aim of promoting the culture of news dissemination particularly raise awareness among workers and was supported by Khaneh Kargar, the government’s labor association.