In a fresh attack on press freedom in
Iran, Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the head of the judiciary,
announced that journalists could face punishment for reporting
corruption stories.
Larijani issued the warnings on October 12 at an event to mark the
33rd anniversary of the National General Inspectorate, an organization
set up to ensure laws are appropriately implemented. He announced that
he would be monitoring the press closely and that he would take legal
action against journalists who covered cases involving ministers or high
profile politicians. “I have ordered Tehran’s prosecutor-general to
review all of them and stand against those who break the law,” he said.
“If need be, he can issue summons.” His warnings also extended to
certain MPs who had openly spoken about undetermined corruption cases.
Ayatollah Larijani’s warnings follow the publication of a number of
articles in reformist newspapers, including Shargh, Aftab, Aban, Ebtekar
and Etemad, which revealed that three cabinet ministers under former
President Ahmadinejad were questioned over the case of Babak Zanjani,
the 40-year old Iranian who made billions of dollars by helping the
Islamic Republic bypass international sanctions. Zanjani later fell out
with the authorities and was arrested in December 2013 on corruption
charges.
It is not the first time that a high-level official has warned the
media about its coverage of corruption cases. Recently, the Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, demanded that journalists stop reporting a
$3 billion embezzlement case, which was widely covered in the national
and international media. The case involved forged documents, which were
used to obtain credit from Iranian banks, both state and private, in
order to purchase state-owned companies. Fourteen Iranian banks and
numerous high-ranking officials are thought to be implicated in the
scandal.
The press, which is often referred to as the fourth pillar of
democracy, is there to report on governmental activity and engender
transparency on behalf of the public. Uprooting corruption is a key part
of this.
Article 19
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which
Iran is a signatory, states that “Everyone shall have the right to
freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,
either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through
any other media of his choice.”
Article 24
of the constitution of the Islamic Republic recognizes freedom of the
press, stating that: “Publications and the press have freedom of
expression except where there is infringement of the basic tenets of
Islam or public order.” Article 2 of Iran’s
Press Law
clarifies that one of the functions of the press is “to enlighten
public opinion and increase its level of knowledge.” Article 4 specifies
that “No government or non-government official should resort to
coercive measures against the press when publishing an article or essay,
or attempt to censure and control the press.”
Is it therefore an infringement of one of the basic tenets of Islam
or of the public’s rights to report on the fact that three ministers
from the previous administration were questioned about Babak Zanjani’s
case? Do Larijani’s warnings directly contradict Article 4 of the press
law, which forbids officials from “coercive measures against the press”?
IranWire spoke to three lawyers about the renewed threats to press freedom in Iran.
Rumors and False Reporting
“The Judiciary Chief’s comments have a political undertone,” says award-winning human rights lawyer
Hossein Raeesi. “But there is legal justification for it in Iran’s penal code.” He says that although
Article 188
of the Criminal Code of Procedure for Public and Revolutionary Courts
accepts the principle of public and open trials, the Article does not
specifically allow for the “publication of court proceedings or for the
disclosure of names or details that reveal the identity of an
individual, including mentioning a plaintiff or defendant’s job title,
until the final verdict has been reached.” The Article also clearly
states that “violating this is considered to be libelous.”
But Raeesi believes that when government officials are accused of
corruption or other illegal activity, society has a right to know. “This
way the impartiality of the judiciary on the one hand, and the
seriousness of the trial on the other, will become clear to the people,”
he says. If this information is available, it will be more difficult
for false rumors to circulate. “People would be convinced that everyone
is equal before the law. So long as names aren’t reported, reporting is
not only not an offense but it’s vital in informing the people.”
A Tool for Control
“Larijani was appointed judiciary chief by the Supreme Leader, and
based on the constitution of the Islamic Republic, it is directly
responsible to him,” says human rights lawyer Mehri Jafari. “If the
media reports cases that the Supreme Leader does not want to be
reported, they are threatened. It is a basic fact that, in such a
bureaucracy, the judiciary is a weapon in the hand of the absolute ruler
or dictator.”
Jafari emphasizes that if Iran enjoyed a free press, the media could
ask why Sadegh Amoli Larijani was in a position to make these demands.
“In a democratic system, no official of the judiciary has the right to
tell the media what they should or should not say,” she says. “In a
democracy, the limits of free speech are set by law and an official of
the judiciary has no right to express his opinion until a person or a
public or private institution files a complaint — let alone issue
threats.”
Jafari underscores the fact that, because Larijani was appointed by
the Supreme Leader, he cannot be impartial when it comes to assessing
the relationship between the regime and the media. In fact, he operates
as an agent of the Supreme Leader. “He can’t just issue threats, he can
hang anybody he wants to,” she says.
“A free press can ask why writing about corruption is considered
grandstanding when nobody has dared to expose the extent and the depth
of corruption inside the judiciary and the administrative systems of
Iran,” Jafari says. “If we had a free press then it would be clear how
this pervasive corruption within the governing establishment in Iran has
made peoples’ lives increasingly difficult, and how it has made their
children’s lives poorer. Unfortunately, the judiciary in Iran — run by
someone who is nothing more than an appointed agent —has turned into its
own antithesis.”
Against Liberties
“Freedom of the press has limitations, such as a ban on insults and libel,” says
Musa Barzin Khalifehloo,
a human rights lawyer. “But these limitations must not be implemented
in a way that would endanger the principle of the free flow of
information. Here we see the judiciary chief threatening the media and
members of parliament in order to prevent them from informing people.”
The media, he says, “can only be prosecuted if the news is falsely
reported and the media have published it in the knowledge that it is. On
the contrary, judicial authorities themselves have admitted that recent
news reports are correct. It is unfortunate that judicial authorities
do not want the financial corruption of government officials to be
revealed to the public. The fundamental liberties of citizens are
sacrificed for politics,” he says.
Larijani argues that, since according to the constitution, the
judiciary is responsible for dispensing justice, members of parliament
have no right to seek information about judicial cases. But Khalifehloo
says this is false. “What the constitution says is that only the
judiciary can take care of people’s complaints and the courts are the
only authorities which can issue a verdict,” he says. “This doesn’t mean
that MPs or the media cannot pursue the matter and publish
information.”
“Prosecuting a case and getting information about it are two
completely different things,” Khalifehloo says, a pointed reminder that
Iran’s judiciary is itself corrupt.
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