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Iran: Court closes Kurdish weekly for
selling copies across border in Iraqi Kurdistan
19.4.2008
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April
19, 2008
Reporters Without Borders condemns the 11 April
decision of a criminal court in Sanandaj, in Iran’s
northwestern Kurdish region (Iranian Kurdistan), to
close the Kurdish-language daily Rouji Ha Lat (Roj
Halat) for good on the grounds that it had received
money from abroad. The court took the position that
it broke the law by selling copies across the border
in the Kurdish part of Iraq,www.ekurd.net
the semi-autonomous
Kurdistan region.
“It seems that any pretext will do in order to
silence independent news media,” the press freedom
organisation said. “The Iranian judicial system
undermines its own credibility each time it hands
down such absurd and iniquitous decisions. A total
of 18 newspapers have been suspended since the start
of the year in Iran, each time for obviously
political reasons.”
The Sanandaj court ruled that, by selling copies in
Iraqi Kurdistan, Rouji Ha Lat had acquired an
“illegal” foreign source of income since, in Iran,
the national news media are not allowed to receive
foreign financial assistance.
Three of the newspaper’s journalists who had been
charged with “activity against national security” -
Farhad Aminpour, Reza Alipour and Saman Solimani -
were fined 300,000 toumen (300 euros). They were
detained for a month in 2006 before being freed on
bail.
Meanwhile on 16 April, a Tehran court ordered the
suspension of the newspaper Rah Ayandeh in response
to a complaint brought by the Ministry of Culture
and Islamic Orientation’s press department. The
newspaper’s next issue, its ninth, was to have been
about Labour Day and the struggle of labour unions
in Iran.
Finally, Reporters Without Borders hopes that the
weekly Ashtai and the daily Rouzegar will soon be on
sale again following court decisions in the past few
days lifting the bans that had been placed on them.
On 3 April, the high court of justice overturned the
decision of a Sanandaj court on 3 December to order
the definitive closure of Ashtai, which had been
suspended since August 2005. And on 5 April, a
Tehran court rehabilitated Rouzegar, which was
suspended by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic
Orientation on 20 October 2006 for violating its
restricted licence by covering political matters.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, rsf org
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 4 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
PJAK
The present leader of the organisation is Haji
Ahmadi. According to the Washington Times, half the
members of PEJAK are women, many of them still in
their teens, and one of the female members of the
leadership council is Gulistan Dugan, a psychology
graduate from the University of Tehran. This is due
primarily to the fact that PEJAK is strongly
supportive of women's rights. PEJAK believes that
women must have a strong role in government and must
be on an equal level with men in leadership
positions.
More about PEJAK- Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan
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