Day by day the situation surrounding freedom of expression in Iran becomes more critical.
Iran:
Freedom of Expression in Tatters
Day by day the situation surrounding freedom of expression in Iran becomes more
critical.
In the year 2004, Iran was deep down the list of countries in terms of freedom. When my wife and I fled the country like the 5 million Iranians who escaped in the last quarter century, there were about 12 journalists in prisons. But now about 25 journalists and webbloggers are in jail. And there are thousands of political prisoners whose stories are not covered by the media.
Just days after the revolution in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini banned newspapers
critical of the new government, beginning 26 years of terror, torture,
imprisonment, exile and mass killing in Iran. In the last 25 years more than
1,000 newspapers and magazines have been banned in Iran. Recently the government
has blocked oposit Internet sites and sent parasite to radio and TV waves,
broadcasted for Iran from abroad.
Almost every journalist who is not completely on the side of the Islamic
Republic is summoned to court at least once. Two years before, Zahra Kazemi, an
Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who took photos of students and people in an
uprising in Tehran was captured, jailed, raped and killed. Two weeks later her
body was transferred to another city and secretly buried.
This story has been repeated many times, to many journalists and intellectuals
in Iran. In fact, over the past 25 years it has happened to many of our friends.
Mohammad Jafar Poyandeh, author and translator of human rights texts, is
another.Just a few days before his speech in our students meeting;He was
abducted by a branch of intelligence service officials and shot; the body was
afterwards discarded in the desert. A few weeks before and after the murder,
other journalists and political activists were killed the same way.
But such acts do not only happen inside Iran; about 300 journalists and
political activists were murdered abroad as well. In fact, these acts of
menacing terror have never stopped.Last month an Iranian Zoroastrian music
professor was killed mysteriously in Paris; many Iranians blamed government
agents.
When a quarter century ago the Islamic Republic banned parties and opposition
organizations, the only menace to the stability of the regime were journalists
and intellectuals inside and outside the country.
On the other hand, with each passing day it gets more difficult to suppress mass demonstrations by women, students, workers and employees in Tehran and throughout Iran. The regime's only real strength is the opposition's weakness and economic support from the EU. In fact, many Western intuitions and media themselves make agenda setting of reformist wing in the regime, but who may know the reform slogan brings nothing except worsening freedom of expression in Iran.
Last week the presidential Election showed how many pepole dont believe reformist slogans. Many independet observers annonced about 60% of potentional voters baickoted the election. In Tehran officail sources said about 25% of voters participated in last week election. Two candidates who compete in the second round are beleived to be involved in the murders of intelctuals inside and outside of Iran.
But westen main stream media like to make agenda setting news and interpertions on Iran based on their diplomatic intersts.
For many Iranian Journalists the one-way flow of Information is somthing they experince every day covering news on Iran by media.
But on the other hand they have no other choice to find alternative media to express thier ideas or talking about such realities:
-More than 3000 cases for journalists, politicians and intelctuals in courts only in recent years.
- dozens of political exucations and murders.
-every year more than hunderd tousand cases confronting islamic rules including Hijab
-Sociopathic crises issues cencored by Media in Iran which shows paradox faces of morality and reality.
-like other totalitar regime making people a two-faces life inside and outside home.
-Making Journalists living in fear and cencore themselves.
-Closed Ploitcal system like cast; in 25 years about 25 persosns were always in the top of power.
-Invading in indeviduals’ lives and freedom, making the educated youth to imigrate.
-Critical crises inside and outside keep people always in fear and make them searching news sources out of censor seytem.
And we can go on with these examples of curoption, terror and dicatorship in which some are unic (because of religius aspects) and some are common in other dicator regimes in the world.
But as it is so obvious no body can stand against the changing season. Some day we may have a happy spring of freedom in that anciant persian country.
Omid Habibinia Lives as a Media Reseaecher and Journalist in Europe in Exile