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At UN, Ahmadinejad Denies Locking Up Journalists,
Unless They "Infringe on Rights of Others"
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 23 -- "In Iran, the
only thing that is not penalized is speaking against officials,"
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad told Inner City Press on September 23. Ahmadinejad had
started his
press conference at the UN by saying that people can say whatever they
want,
both in Iran and around the world. Inner City Press asked about
journalists
imprisoned in Iran, including feminists and a blogger who satirized
Ahmadinejad's
security detail's purchas of expensive dogs from Germany. "There is no
persecution," Ahmadinejad said. "I am not aware of that at all."
Video here,
from Minute 40:48.
At issue is Article 500
of Iran's Penal Code,
which as
translated on a UN website provides that "anyone who undertakes
any form of propaganda against the state... will be sentenced to
between three months
and one year in prison." Inner City Press, reading from this
very UN
website, asked Ahmadinejad about the law.
"Your information regarding Iran's penal code is not
sufficient," Ahmadinejad replied. "Criticizing officials is free. But
if you infringe on the rights of others, the law will respond."
Beyond the
case of satirical
blogger Reza Valizadeh and of "cyber-feminists"
Parvin
Ardalan, Jelveh Javaheri, Maryam Hosseinkhah and Nahid Keshavarz, there
are a
slew of journalists reported to be locked up inside Iran. Arash Sigarchi was
sentenced to 14 years; Mansour Osanloo of the Syndicate of Workers of
Tehran
and Suburbs Bus Company has been jailed precisely for "propaganda
against
the state." Also, click here. While
Iran is by no
means the only enemy of press freedom, after Ahmadinejad claimed the
people can
say whatever they want in Iran, the issue had to be raised.
Ahmadinejad takes Press
questions, denies locking up reporters
In posing
the question -- which on the UN's
webcast is left translated into Farsi --
Inner City Press acknowledged that there are limitations on press
freedom in
the U.S. and elsewhere. Still and all in the middle of his response,
Ahmadinejad
was handed a slip of paper which he read out, stating that in the U.S.
the
penal code prohibits criticizing the "military uniform." Perhaps the
reference is to barring photographs of coffins of soldiers killed in
Iraq. In
any event, Inner City Press will be raising freedom of expression
issues
whenever possible with other heads of state during this UN General
Assembly. Iran and the Press need a better
answer,
however.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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