Iran disbands Association of Iranian Journalists
Published: Wednesday, June 25, 2008
11:56GMT—7:56PM/EST
IRAN – JOURNALISTS – ASSOCIATION – CLOSURE
Washington, 24 June (IranVNC)—Iran yesterday announced that it was disbanding a prominent organization of Iranian journalists, stirring up protests from members of the group.
Iran’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs wrote that the Association of Iranian Journalists, a 4,000-member union for the country’s journalists, was no longer officially recognized and that it could not continue its activities, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Badrolsadat Mofidi, secretary of the association, has said the move was politically motivated, and that it violated article four of the International Labor Organization Treaty. The article says that workers’ organizations cannot be dissolved or shut down through the administrative system. Iran is a signatory to the treaty.
But the Ministry said the decision to disband the group is based on the opinion of the Justice Administration Court concerning a dispute over the legality of elections held by the organization in 2006.
The association attempted to elect a new executive board for two years, but could not carry out the elections because it did not have quorum.
When the association in 2006 held its third meeting and succeeded to elect its executive board, the Ministry of Labor and some members of the group protested, saying that a third gathering had not been foreseen in the group’s Charter.
The association protested, and took its complaints to the Judiciary. On 3 May, the Judiciary issued its ruling through the Ministry of Labor, upholding the complaints against the association.
In an interview with the reformist Kargozaran Newspaper, Mofidi called for association members and other journalists to take part in a forum on Saturday 28 June, to decide on the organization’s next move.
“The Ministry of Labor’s move is a factional and political and it stems from the dissatisfaction of officials at the Ministry of Labor over the results of the elections of the board of directors of the Association of Iranian Journalists,” Kargozaran quoted Mofidi as saying.
Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a journalist and member of the association’s board of directors, also called the move “illegal” and politically motivated, and said it would not stop the organization’s activities.
“The association is going to go on with its activities and its general assembly will take place on the scheduled day – 7 August,” he said in an interview with Radio Farda.
The association, most of whose members have reformist tendencies or are members of the workers’ party, was formed in 1997 and was registered with the Ministry of Labor as a national labor union.
Sources: Kargozaran Newspaper, IRNA, Radio Farda
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)