Media under the Fence of Censorship: A Look at the Situation of the Iranian Press After the Revolution

As May 3rd and World Press Freedom Day approaches, the Persian service of the Voice of America has examined, in an investigative report and in interviews with experts, the developments in the Iranian press since the 1979 revolution and the state of the media under the siege of censorship.

In the final months of the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, one of the most important union actions was the press strike, which lasted from November 15, 1978 to January 16, 1979, i.e. 62 days.

With the end of this strike, a new era began in the life of the Iranian press; a period that continued for months after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, during which the media wrote whatever they wanted, and various political groups as well as "conventional and traditional" media enjoyed this "freedom."

• The spring that didn't last long

In the early summer of 1979, with the approval of a new press law by the Islamic Revolutionary Council, a number of newspapers and magazines were closed. It was in late summer of 1979 that restrictions on the press intensified and the publication of many newspapers and magazines was halted.

In the spring of 1980, more than 200 publications were published in Iran, but it was in Farvardin 1988 that the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced to printing houses to refrain from printing “unauthorized” newspapers and magazines. As a result, by the end of the spring of 1988, only four newspapers were published – “Jumhuri Eslami” and “Sobh Azadegan” in the morning edition, and “Kayhan” and “Itla’at” in the evening edition.

During this period, the circulation of Kayhan va Ettelat, which had been printed for a time after the 1979 revolution at "more than a million copies," decreased to less than a fifth.

The severity of press restrictions increased after the former leader and founder of the Islamic Republic took a clear stance.

In his speech in Qom on August 16, 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini attacked the press, saying that if we had acted "revolutionarily, had broken the pens of all the press, had closed down all the corrupt magazines and the corrupt press, had brought their leaders to trial, had banned corrupt parties, had brought their leaders to their own punishment, had erected gallows in large squares, and had killed the corrupt and the corrupt, these troubles would not have occurred."

These statements by Khomeini, however, were a 180-degree turn from his words before the 1979 revolution in Nouvelle-Le-Chateau, where he had said: "The people rose up to be free, they should not break their pens so that you should not write. They are the ones who broke the pens in these fifty years."

Journalist Elahe Hippocrates, in an interview with the Persian service of the Voice of America, said about the beginning of the period of censorship and repression: "All groups were crushed and their publications were closed" and "conventional publications were put under pressure." Although the pressure "became organized later," "in the first two years, pressure groups that are now known as Atash-e-Ashtiyar and were called Hezbollah and Phalange at the time attacked and "set fire to" the offices of newspapers that did not conform to Khomeini's line and the current of power.

The newspapers "Paygham Emrooz" and "Ayndegan" are two examples of media outlets that were closed during that period.

Ms. Hippocrates adds: "If the media had freedom at that time, it was because the newly established regime had not yet established itself in power, and as soon as it did, it closed all newspapers."

• Mass migration of security figures to the press

The leaves and branches of the press collapsed, and what remained was mainly used by the Islamic Republic's propaganda apparatus. This closed space continued from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, but after the 2nd of Khordad 1997 and the unexpected victory of Mohammad Khatami in the presidential elections, the space opened up somewhat.

Behzad Mehrani, a researcher, tells VOA that the second faction of Khordad, which is the left wing of the Islamic Republic and was often present in the security organs in the 1960s, was removed from power after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and went to libraries and research institutes and realized that the Islamic Republic needed to open up a little space to survive, what is commonly called a "safety valve."

He emphasizes: "This space was not for dissidents and secular forces, but for intellectuals and the left wing of the Islamic Republic."

But the Islamic Republic's authorities did not tolerate that relative and controlled opening, and due to the internal conflict among the forces ruling Iran, the press faced widespread arrests and closures.

• The ubiquity of the Internet and the global information explosion

In the 1980s, the sparks of the global information explosion reached Iran with the widespread use of the Internet, and the availability of information for citizens, and the expansion of Persian media abroad, became a new challenge for censors. Thanks to the Internet, control over the free flow of information was somewhat removed from the hands of the ruling regime, despite the return of conservatives to power.

The spread of public protests and the increasingly exposed gap between the people and the established system also faced the media with new challenges.

Journalist Hedeya Kimiai, referring to the increased security pressures on journalists during Hassan Rouhani's second term as president, points to the silence of domestic media during popular protests and the repression by the forces of the Islamic Republic. She told VOA that many of her colleagues were forced to quit their jobs or remain silent during this period, and some were "attracted to government and state institutions" and turned to covering them in the media.

According to him, the boycott or distortion of the facts of the nationwide protests in January 2017 and November 2019 also continued in the event of the Revolutionary Guards' missile attack on the Ukrainian plane.

Prison, immigration, house arrest, changing jobs, or continuing to work under the knife of repression; dismantling trade unions and creating custom organizations; the trend of the past four decades has faced journalism in Iran with numerous difficulties.

Also, the popularity of social networks as a new form of media has increased the concerns of those who suppress the free flow of information and given new dimensions to censorship. As Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, describes cyberspace as “truly free” and “unfettered” and calls for its “regulation” as a priority by launching a “national internet” or in projects such as “protection.”

Source: Voice of America