TEHRAN Journalists do not agree on what Chief of the Justice Department of Tehran Province, Abbas-Ali Alizadeh, said about the eligibility of the managing directors of the weeklies and dailies.
Alizadeh announced last week that the eligibility of the managing directors of those weeklies which intend to change their frequency to daily should be reassessed by the Justice Department, despite the fact that their eligibility had already been approved by the Press Supervisory Board.
The Majlis yesterday approved an urgent bill, asking MPs to interpret Article 9 (6) of the Press Law on the issue.
Article 9 (6) provides that the Press Supervisory Board investigates the competency of applicants and managing directors, and inquire about their record from the Information Ministry, Justice Department and the Law Enforcement Forces before issuing any permission to them.
The Majlis has to provide answers to two questions: Does Clause 6 of Article 9 of the Press Law apply also to weeklies that have already obtained permission and only want to change the frequency from a weekly to a daily? The second question is, does the content of the Clause 6 also cover inquiry about the staff of the weekly and daily? Talking to the TEHRAN TIMES in this regard, a member of the Editorial Board of Persian daily Kayhan Mohammad Mohajeri said that in my opinion there is no need to put an urgent bill on the agenda of the Majlis.
There are two reasons: One, some Majlis deputies want to take advantage of their political privilege and if they were not deputies, they could not use this privilege.
Deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance said most of the problems dealing with new publications have been resolved.
The second reason is that this move is simply a propaganda measure and since the deputies have not provided answer to the urgent problems of the people, they raise this issue to overshadow their failure.
When the Judiciary bans a daily based on law, MPs present an urgent bill to the Majlis to support their own dailies, he said, adding, "this is a joke".
According to the Press Law, managing directors of new publications should provide the names of their new staff to the supervisory board for new inquiry by the competent authorities, he said and added that a weekly may be run by 10 people, but a daily by some 50.
Editor-in-chief of weekly Iran-e Javan and member of the Editorial Board of daily Iran, Faramarz Qarebaghi, talking to the TEHRAN TIMES described the bill as positive and said that if the bill is passed, most of the problems of the publications will be resolved.
He said the Press Law should facilitate the freedom of expression not creating hurdles in its way.
He said, "I am opposed to the Press Law approved by the Fifth Majlis," adding that those who passed the law did not have a precise and correct understanding of journalism and freedom of expression.
He said the Press Law should be accepted as the fourth pillar of democracy and not the pillar of any other thing.
He said the present law does not protect the security of our publications.
There are some who ban the dailies without providing any reason for doing so. He said the Press Law approved by the Fifth Majlis runs counter to the freedoms stipulated in the Constitution and proposed that the Sixth Majlis should once again present a new bill on the Press Law, in which freedoms provided in the Constitution and the freedom of expression should be guaranteed.
Such a law should also provide legal and professional security for all journalists.
On Alizadeh's statement, he said Alizadeh is wrong, adding that the current Press Law and Alizadeh's proposal run counter to the Constitution and restricts the publications.
One who has not committed any offense should not be subjected to inquiry, he stressed.