Back to Brief on Iran
TEHRAN - Publisher Shahla Lahiji was at a book fair in western Iran when she noticed security people helping themselves to works that the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance had given her permission to publish.
"We didn't even know who they were. When we asked, they answered, 'Don't challenge,' " she recalled. "This is a sensitive time for all of us."
A climate of fear is running through editorial offices and publishing houses in Iran amid signs of a crackdown.
It began with criticism by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that some newspapers were being used to weaken Islamic belief. Now Lahiji says that, one by one, she and others in the media have been warned: "Be careful."…
For editors and publishers, the message is clear: The winds have shifted. Khatami has not raised strong protest, leading many to conclude that he feels powerless to oppose the crackdown.
Khatami's administration has surrendered, they say, in the case of a few publications that challenged Iran's system of government overseen by religious authority….
"Yes, I must be more cautious now because I could be faced by the Revolutionary Court," said Ali Dehbashi, editor of Bukhara, a review of art and culture.
A veteran daily newspaper editor who requested anonymity said: "No one will come here to tell me to write this or not to write that. But if I write something, I know there will be a price to pay."…
Some Khatami supporters feel that the crackdown is a sign of worse things to come, a signal that the hard-liners are working to depose the president….
Yazdi, the judiciary head, said the Revolutionary Court intends to keep a close eye on the press, something that had been the purview of the more liberal Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance….
Paying the Price for Rushdie Deal, Reuter,
October 14
TEHRAN - Iranian conservatives, inflamed by any possible threat to the state's Islamic principles, have turned their anger on last month's diplomatic deal with Britain over the Salman Rushdie affair.
An Iranian press report that a religious foundation has upped the price on Rushdie's head to $2.8 million touched off new fears for the author's life despite what British officials earlier billed as an accord that would ensure his safety.
Another hardline group, meanwhile, announced it would collect an additional $333,000, payable to the assassin or, in the event of his death, to his family.
"This was always about domestic politics, on both sides. It still is," said one European Union diplomat. "Iran's conservatives have to remind everyone that they still count."
Toward that end, the hardline daily Jomhuri Eslami announced on Monday that the 15th of Khordad Foundation had increased its price on Rushdie's head by $300,000. Separately, hardline veterans said they would collect additional funds of their own.
Both dismissed as meaningless the diplomatic deal between Iran and Britain, arguing that the fatwa cannot be rescinded by government fiat.
Renewed talk of blood money, however, has set off alarm bells in London, where officials said Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was preparing to meet Rushdie to review the matter.
Iran's Right Combats Voter Apathy Ahead of Polls, Reuter, October 15
TEHRAN - Iranian conservatives, increasingly fearful that a low turnout in next week's polls could weaken the country's Islamic system, have launched a big political and media campaign to encourage people to vote.
State radio and television, controlled by the right, is sponsoring various competitions, including a prize for the best pro-election slogan.
News bulletins in the run-up to the October 23 polls to the Assembly of Experts, a body of theologians which names and can dismiss Iran's supreme leader, feature senior statements by Shi'ite Moslem clerics saying it is a religious duty to vote.
Almost 400 people signed up to take part in the elections, but only 167 -- none of them women -- were ruled as having the required theological credentials.
High public participation, Habibollah Asgarowladi, head of the conservative Islamic Coalition Society, said, would represent "a bullet in the heart of the enemies of the Islamic Revolution" and provide further proof of the legitimacy of the system.
Underlying the twin campaigns is the fear that low voter participation in the nationwide elections could set in motion a challenge to the entire Islamic political system.