You Can't Just Write Anything You Like about Iran

“Liberal-minded newspapers critical of the government have been closed and journalists jailed for misdemeanors ranging from printing ‘lies’ to insulting Islamic mores. Criticism is not welcomed and is being met with decreasing tolerance.” Come on, guess what country this is. You just can't write that about Iran. Because it's true.

It's a quote from The Guardian, from and article wrote by Robert Tait, the only reporter the newspaper had in Iran. Of course, the Guardian doen't have a reporter in Iran now. Tait was "sent" back home. I found the i nfo browsing around on the INternational Journalism Network website, http://www.ijnet.org/.

It seems the Ministry of Guidance and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran has warned foreign reporters not to write stories that are unacceptable under Iran’s new Press law. And "unacceptable" could just mean anything.

Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, seems to be a avery bad girl too. She mocked a newspaper in Tehran. “Kayhan is not very good at fabrications.” And ever since she sad it they've been picking on her.

I remember something H., a friend of mine in Iran, told me once. He was really upset. He's a teacher and a girl asked him during a class what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad studied. He answered that the PhD must be fake. Three days later a few guys came and warned him to keep his mouth shut. Of course I told him he's suicidal. People suddenly disapear sometimes. We used to have that in Romania before 1989, and Romania was a dictatorship before 1989.

And he told me the story about the professional media in Iran.

Ahmadinejad went for a visit in the towm H. is living in. Nobody went. There were like a few people, so they forced the school children to go and meet the president. (This again is something very familiar to me from the old days before 1989). And then there were the reports on the national network. Lots of people meeting the president in X town. And the news on the local TV. People met the president in town X. (the footage showed very few people). The explanation was simple, H told me. The local TV did not have the technical means to put more people in the footage. Geez! They should come to Romania and learn how to do it with no means from the guzs who worked in the Romanian National TV before December 1989.