Iranian Press Mostly Quiet In Run-up to Election
The crackdown on the media which started five months before the election has effectively stifled critical press inside Iran.
In the run-up to the June 14 presidential election in Iran, a critical approach from newspapers and websites is highly absent, even compared with previous election cycles.
The outcome of Iran’s presidential election in 2009 prompted public demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, and several major cities; the protests were of a size that were unprecedented since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In the aftermath of the election protests, security forces reacted excessively. Many people were detained, several were killed on the streets and in prison and the Green Movement leaders were put under house arrest. Several reformist journalists and political activists received long-term prison sentences.
Now, with the picture of the 2009 presidential election in mind, authorities are trying to prevent this election from becoming a security issue. “The main goal for those seditionists is to take revenge in the upcoming election and strike back at the system,” said Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi, following the detention of 17 journalists nearly five months ahead of the June 14 election. He added that Iran’s aim is to “prevent the emergence of sedition prior to the election.” The word “sedition” is the term used for the Green Movement, its leaders and all those who questioned the validity of the 2009 presidential election.
The government’s first preventive step was suppression of journalists and the press. The detained journalists worked for mostly reformist newspapers and websites. Moslehi said they were “puppets of world arrogance” and said their arrests have created “havoc” in the network of the country's enemies. In a statement on Jan. 30, the Intelligence Ministry further announced that the arrested journalists were spies and affiliates of the BBC news network and promised further arrests.
