THE
LATEST DASH OF THE IRANIAN REGIME:
CENSORSHIP BEFORE THE ELECTION ...
It has been
found out that prior to the 4th Term Elections of the
Council of Experts and 3rd Term Local Elections that will be
held concurrently on 15 December 2006, some newspapers
issued in the country were warned officially in the early
December by the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office. Within this
practice; it has been noted in the memo written to the heads
of the editorial departments of many reformist newspapers
such as Atemade Melli, Kargozaran, Atemad, Ayandeh No and
Hambastegi that “the newspapers were warned due to their
publications directed at influencing the elections and
supporting certain candidates and if their attitude
continues their publications will be suspended during the
period of elections” and thus they were intimidated.
Following
the mentioned news was heard, it was reported that people
began making assessments that “the main reason of the
warning was the underlying struggle of power that surfaced
prior to the elections” due to the fact that the newspapers
which were warned carried the photos of the former President
Mohammed Khatami and the reformist 15 candidates a while ago,
the radicals who tried to prevent the will of people were
expected to resort to every means.”
On the
other hand, the statements that were made by the
Telecommunication Organization on 5 December 2006 that
“during the elections of the Council of Experts and the
Municipality Elections, short message systems in GSM and
some communication channels will be monitored” suggest
clearly the great extent of the worry that the
Administration is feeling. The Iranian Administrators
fearing the will which was displayed by the people after the
cartoon crises in last May adopted the easy approach instead
of taking into consideration the requests of the people by
focusing on problems and producing solutions. Making a
superficial assessment that “in the incidents of May, the
people got organized speedily by communicating through short
message and internet”, the decision makers tried to take
measures to prevent a likely protest from spreading to broad
masses.
In fact,
everybody with common sense who analyzes the history of the
country in a realistic way knows that the people who have
gathered around a certain aim does not necessarily benefit
from the fruits of technology! Isn’t it enough for the
people who have the same views to see eye to eye for getting
organized? What should the Administration do in this case?
‘It should ban the citizens from getting side by side and
seeing eye to eye, and at least it should ensure everybody
would stay at home until the day of election and prevent
walking in the street.’
The
administration should not forget that even the greatest
fires were started with a small spark.
