U.N. calls for greater press freedom worldwide
Published: Saturday, May 03, 2008
14:00 GMT—10:00 AM/EST
PRESS FREEDOM-WORLD-IRAN
Washington, May 3 (IranVNC)—Access to information “empowers each one of us to transform our lives and our communities,” United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said in a statement published on Wednesday as the organization prepared to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1993 to recognize the right to freedom of expression.
Mr. Ban paid tribute to those who, working in hostile environments, “provide us with free, unbiased information,” and he urged the world “to work for freedom—and safety—of the press everywhere.”
Also earlier this week, an international survey on press freedom found a large number of Iranians support tighter government controls on press reports that could be deemed as politically destabilizing and so do people in six other Muslim majority states and Russia.
The poll, conducted by the University of Maryland in 20 countries, found broad support for freedom of the press and opposition to government restrictions on Internet access. Eighty-eight percent of Americans ranked press freedom as very important and three quarters believed they should be able to read publications from every country in the world, even those the United States considers enemies. A large percentage of U.S. residents who participated in the survey thought the press enjoyed sufficient freedom in their country, whereas in countries such as Argentina, Mexico and China, a higher percentage of people called for greater press freedom.
Researchers found support for press freedom in Iran is lackluster when compared to the said countries: just over two-thirds of respondents in Iran said press freedom is very important. Forty-five percent of Iranians supported restrictions on politically destabilizing material. Slightly less than half support some government restrictions on Internet access while 32 percent believe they should have unrestricted access to the Internet.
Signaling deteriorating conditions, Iran’s media reported on Wednesday that the country’s Employment Court of Justice system has nullified Iran’s journalists’ guild election results, effectively suspending the union.
Last January, the international non-profit advocacy group Freedom House released a report on the status of press freedom worldwide, ranking Iran as “not free” with regard to guarantees of freedom of expression in the country. Bloggers, however, continued to be the vanguard of free expression in Iran, said the report, which named North Korea as the worst violator of press freedom.
Similarly, the press freedom watchdog Reporters without Borders remained highly critical of Iran in its 2008 annual report on restrictions of the press inside the country.
More than 50 journalists were “targets of financial and bureaucratic harassment,” the organization said, maintaining, as it has in the past, that Iran is the “biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East.”
In Iran last week, the Press Supervisory Board of the Islamic Republic closed the reformist daily Hambastegi. Earlier that month, Farhang Ashati’s name was added to a long list of journalists arrested in the country, Reporters without Borders has said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran’s people enjoy the right to freedom of expression and exchange of ideas. But even as the government promotes the Internet as an engine of economic growth, it has restricted Internet speeds and blocked nearly 10 million websites, reports the Open Net Initiative (ONI), an organization that investigates freedom of information. The decision has come under fire from Iran’s Majlis deputies who have taken their fight for higher Internet speeds in Iran to the web, putting up a website that advocates higher Internet speeds.
Iran’s Judiciary actively seeks to block 1,000 websites per month. Nevertheless, the ONI reports that Internet usage has grown exponentially, nearly 2,900 percent between 2000 and 2005. Nearly 7.4 million people have access to the Internet in Iran, while there are over 400,000 Persian blogs on the Internet.
These blogs, increasingly a platform for free expression, news coverage and social activism, have come under increasing government pressure in the past year. The government arrested two women’s rights activists who used the blogosphere in 2007 to call for equal rights with men in Iran, and held them for six months in the notorious Evin Prison. Thirty two other advocates connected with the One-million Signatures Campaign for women’s equality were also arrested in 2007. One of the movement’s founding members, Parvin Ardalan, was detained on March 4 as she prepared to travel abroad to accept the prestigious Swedish human rights award, the Olof Palme Prize. Iranian media reported on May 2 that a revolutionary court found her guilty of “colluding to organize illegal gatherings” and gave her a suspended two-year jail term. The sentence, which will remain in effect for three years, means that if Ardalan is found guilty of another crime during this period, she will be jailed for two years.
Lastly, journalists who use the blogosphere to criticize Iran’s hard-line government have also faced arrest. Esmail Jafari, who was reported to have been released from prison on April 30, was arrested two weeks earlier for criticizing President Ahmadinejad.
In late 2006, Iran’s Majlis was due to pass a law on “cyber-crimes.” While no recent information is available on the legislation, if passed, the bill proposed by Iran’s Judiciary would effectively impose further restrictions on web activity in the country.
Sources: the United Nations website, Reporters without Borders, Freedom House, Open Net Initiative, Committee to Protect Journalists, University of Maryland website
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