The Association of Iranian Journalists Will not Open

As pressure on Iran’s media increases, culminating this week in the closure of Bahar newspaper, bringing despair to supporters of Hassan Rowhani’s administration who looked forward to an opening of the political and media atmosphere in the country, the spokesperson of the judiciary Gholam-Hossein Ejhei announced that the Association of Iranian Journalists, the AIJ (Anjomane Senfie Ruznamenegaran) would remain shut.

Ejhei said this during his weekly press conference and a day after a meeting of four members of the association at ISNA student news organization convened to discuss the reopening the journalists’ association. At the ISNA meeting, as reported by Sharg newspaper, Mashala Shamsolvaezin the head of the AIJ, Badral Sadat Mofidi the secretary of the association, Kambiz Noroozi the legal committee officer and Masoud Hooshmand Razavi a board member of the group had med at ISNA where respected liberal journalist Shamsolvaezin said, “The Association has one official plaintiff which is the ministry of intelligence which should withdraw its complaint. We shall open the door of the association and begin our work the day this complaint is withdrawn.” He continued, “The day the association sealed off by the ministry of intelligence we were told that this was a preventive measure. Now that the president has promised the reopening of the association and the also ordered the withdrawal of complaints filed against the media, and because of the changes in the political atmosphere of the country and also because the association is the place where media issues are resolved, we expect that the ministry of intelligence be asked to withdraw its complaint so we can return to our (professional) home.”

At ISNA, Shamsolvaezin, who has been for months trying to restart the popular Neshat newspaper, also said, “I bear witness that we have not at the association done anything that is contrary to the association’s work that is permitted under the law. If any such activities had taken place I would have stopped it. I must add that those who made accusations against us are all fully political, their religion and everything else. Whit members of the association were political but they did not engage in any activity that is outside or contrary to the confines of the work of the association. If there are activities that contradict this, they should present them.”

During the same gathering, Mofidi also spoke and said, “We must pursue our goal of reopening the association by working with three government departments, i.e., the ministry of welfare and social work, the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, and the ministry of intelligence. And in this regard we have sent letters to Mr. Rabiei the minister of labor but have not received any responses yet. This contrasts with the previous administration when Mr. Jahromi was the minister with whom we met on two occasions to talk about the status of the association. The current minister does not seem to take our requests seriously. At the same time we have met and talked with media officials at the ministry of culture who have made promising statements including efforts to reopen the association.”

These remarks have created a certain optimism, but only until the news of the closure of Bahar hit the streets. Immediately after the closure, former presidential candidate Mohammad-Reza Aref washed his hands off it and distanced himself from the newspaper.

But the bigger bombshell was yet to come, and it did when Ejhei announced that the AIJ could not be reopened and accused the organization of wide violations. “Any institute, agency, party, group or association that is closed through a court order, cannot engage in any activity so long as that court order is in effect; otherwise the attorney general will be the plaintiff and will confront the violators,” he explained. “Regarding the association of Journalists, the decision stands and it has no right to engage in any activity,” he emphasized.

A few weeks ago when the House of Cinema (Khane Cinema) was reopened it brought much hope and speculation that the journalists association too would soon reopen. AIJ was shut in 2009 on the order of infamous judge Saeed Mortezavi, depriving journalists of having their professional cards renewed, their insurances suspended etc.

With some 40 journalists behind bars, Iran continues to be one of the countries with the largest number of journalist prisoners in the world.