Iran: More Journalists Fall Victim To War on Media

Adnkronos International:

Another journalist has fallen victim to the wave of media repression sweeping Iran. Issa Saharkhiz, editor of the monthly Aftab (the Sun) and president of an association of Iranian newspaper editors has been banned from working as a journalist or editor for the next six months. Other casualties of the apparent war on the media include Omid Sheikhian, a well-known Iranian blogger sentenced to a year in prison and two lashes and Jalal Jalalizadeh, editor-in-chief of the magazine Sirvan, who has been summoned to Tehran's court over an article on the new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Wednesday the trial was due to start of the editor-in-chief of Doniaye Javan (the World of the Young), Fazilat Khanevadeh (Knowledge and Family), Honar va Zendeghi (Art and Life) and Dampezeshk (The Vet). All are accused of having "incited readers to rebel against the powers of the State."

In the last three years 101 newspapers and magazines have been closed on the orders of magistrates in the capital, according to Naser Sarraj, president of the Court of Tehran, and a dozen of journalists are currently in prison.

Iran's most famous journalist, Akbar Ganji, continues to remain in isolation, his wife, Massoumeh Shafii, told Adnkronos International (AKI). "After 52 days, finally, together with one of his lawyers, I have managed to talk to my husband, who confirmed to me that he is still in a punishment cell with no contact with other prisoners."

Sohrab Soleymani, director-general of the capital's prisons, refused to confirm Shafii's statements. "Foreign powers are trying to transform Ganji's case into a means of putting pressure on the Islamic Republic," he said, in what could be a reference to the European Parliament's recent resolution calling for the journalist's immediate release. "So many other prisoners are in isolation and cannot meet their relatives and I don't understand why the world is only worried about the case of this journalist," he said.