IRAN: Mullahs' censors cannot even tolerate "friendly" publications

The clerical regime's judiciary ordered two Tehran journals - Jame'eh and Gozaresh-e Ruz (Daily Report) - to cease publication. Journals such as Jame'eh have stated time and again that while they publish certain articles critical of some aspects of the mullahs' rule, their ultimate goal is to preserve the mullahs' regime and "let off the steam in the society's pressure cooker." Some of the principal publishers of Jame'eh were in fact among the founders of the Revolutionary Guards, the mullahs' main organ of repression and export of terrorism.

The judicial authorities' move had the blessing of Khatami's cabinet, for the court verdict came after a committee set up by the Ministry of Guidance declared these publications to be in breach of the regime's press rules.

Three other publications, Panjshanbeha (Thursdays), Kayhan Varzeshi, and Kayhan Hava'i (a publication for distribution among Iranians overseas, run by the Ministry of Intelligence) were also condemned to pay fines and face press restrictions.

The closure of the regime's own publications shows once again that any talk of reform in the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship is absurd and totally removed from reality.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
June 11, 1998

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