|
The Assembly of Delegates of
International PEN, meeting at its 73rd
International Congress in Dakar,
Senegal, 4 – 11 July 2007
Extremely concerned about the lack of
progress in identifying and prosecuting
those responsible for the torture and
subsequent murder of Iranian-Canadian
photojournalist
Zahra Kazemi;
and the failure to bring to justice
those who
ordered the serial murders in the late
1990s of Iranian writers and
intellectuals;
Shocked by the conviction for spying of
freelance business journalist
Ali Farahbakhsh
on 26 March 2007, who was sentenced to
three years in prison; and the two year
prison sentence handed down to Iranian
Kurdish journalist
Kaveh Javanmard
on 17 May 2007, as well as the continued
detention of the Iranian Kurdish
journalists and cultural activists
Adnan
Hassanpour
and Mohammad
Sadiq Kabudvand
and Iranian Azerbaijani journalists and
cultural activists
Said Matinpour
and Abbas
Lissani;
as well as the prison sentences of three
years and two years and a half years
handed down by the court of first
instance to Kurdish journalists
Ejlal Qavami
and Said
Sa’edi
respectively on 9 June 2007;
Concerned that the security
organisations have prevented the Iranian
Writers Association from holding its
General Assembly to elect its board of
directors for the past five years;
Deeply concerned that the authorities
have banned the publishing of hundreds
of books including those that have
already appeared once or several times
in print, and have used this policy to
pressure independent publishers;
prohibited some films and shut down
several cultural and artistic
organisations;
Further concerned that writers,
journalists and others detained in
violation of their right to freedom of
expression have been tortured in the
presence of judges, held for weeks in
solitary confinement and denied basic
due process rights;
Noting that Iran imprisons the highest
number of journalists in the Middle
East, violating their rights to freedom
of expression and to a fair trial, and
often with long periods of incommunicado
detention and lack of access to adequate
medical care;
Dismayed that the judicial authorities
have banned an increasing number of
writers and journalists from visiting
other countries; and have harassed and
persecuted a sizable number of
journalists on returning to Iran from
training courses abroad;
Troubled by the state crackdown on
women’s activists and women writers and
journalists, which has resulted in
dozens being arbitrarily detained, at
least eight of whom are facing charges,
including
prominent women writers and journalists Shadi Sadr, Mahbubeh
Abbasgholizadeh, Jila Baniyaghoub and
Nahid Keshavarz; and the prison
sentences handed down to journalists
Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan,
Sussan Tahmassebi
and Fariba
Davoodi Mohajer.
Noting that Iran’s judiciary has shut
down a number of independent newspapers,
more than 30 weeklies and other
periodicals, mostly in the provinces,
and tens of student newsletters in the
course of the past year; dozens of
journalists and intellectuals have been
summoned by authorities and many of them
have been prosecuted under the
restrictive provisions of the Press Law
and Penal Code;
Worried by resolutions that the
government adopted in November 2006 to
facilitate control of the Internet in
Iran, which have been used since that
time to ban access to countless Web
sites; as a result of which
thousands of
Web sites are censored, on-line
journalists harassed and privately-owned
Internet service providers (ISPs)
ordered to shut down or put themselves
under government control; and including
the crackdown on several Iranian
“bloggers” who write and post
information on the Internet, amongst
them prominent Internet writer Arash
Sigarchi who was sentenced to 14 years
in prison, reduced to three years on
appeal, in February 2005;
Deploring the climate of self-censorship
induced by the systematic repression of
those expressing critical or opposing
views against the authorized political
and religious doctrines;
Noting with distress that the
International Bookfair (TIBF) held in
Tehran 1 – 12 March 2007 only gave
access to publishers approved by the
Iranian government, and that
international publishers were separated
from domestic publishers, thus
diminishing the possibility of a real
cultural dialogue between Iranian and
foreign writers and publishers;
Alarmed that the Iranian ethnic groups,
including Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Arabs and
Baluchis, are prohibited from teaching
and studying in their own languages;
Further alarmed by the systematic
suppression of public and intellectual
dissent in Iran;
Urges the government of Iran to:
Release and drop all charges against all
political prisoners targeted for the
legal exercise of their right to free
expression, association and assembly,
including Siamak Pourzand and Ali
Farahbakhsh; as well as
all prisoners
detained in violation of Article 19 of
the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, to which Iran is a
signatory;
Review the Press Law, Penal Code and
censorship of book publishing with the
aim of the repeal all criminal
provisions hindering the peaceful
expression of opinion;
Require and maintain the full
cooperation of judicial bodies and
security forces in ensuring that trials
are conducted in accordance with
international standards of fairness and
that torture is abolished; and to bring
to justice those who ordered the murder
of Zahra Kazemi and the victims of
serial murders of the late 1990s;
Lift the ban on newspapers and
periodicals, and to retract resolutions
that allow for censorship of the
Internet in its many forms and ensure
the free flow of information on the Web;
Conduct a thorough investigation of its
secret prisons, granting full access to
international observers;
Take measures to allow writers and
journalists to freely practice their
right to freedom of assembly and
association;
Take concrete steps to ensure the full
and unhindered access to the right to
freedom of expression in Iran. |