Monday April 3,2006
Aftab News :









Spring season , the begining of the winter sleep of Iran's press !

This year on the new year days and on the Norouz holidays ( Which is for 13 days ) the press activities in Iran was off for two weeks . The importance of this event is because it happens in the begining of the New Years, which is an exception in the world press , especially in this interconnected world and the non-stop efforts to deliver information to the public.Although this exception is a time of rest for Iranian journalists and reporters who work hard and have less income , but at the same time can be seen as unprofessional and even dangerous . The following is the openions of several professional in this field:

Mr. Arghandehpour : The independent newspapers have many restrictions !The editor of the banned " Eqbal " newspaper said: " As far as i know ,nowhere in the world the holidays for print press is like in Iran , even in our neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Turkey on holidays we see the continious publication with high circulation". He also said that: "When delivering information stops it effects the government although the entire government is on holiday but this doesn't mean that nothing is happening in the country".Mr. Mashaullah

Shamsolvaezin , the spokperson for the" Association in Defense of Press Freedom" :He called Iran as an exceptional country which contrary to other countries during the holidays the newspapers are not being published. He said prior to the revolution the New Years holiday was only 4 days but after the revolution it increased by 4 times( 15 Days) and as a result many active parts of the society was also shut down , but the worse of it is the long closure of print media.He also spoke about the danger of not publishing newspapers at the time of lots of news about Iran.He then urged the print media despite of restrictions to publish the news and end to this vacum .

Mr. Mohammad javad Haghshenas , The managing director of the "Etemade Meli " newspaper:He warrned about the closure of the print media during the New Year holidays.He said the spring for newspapers is the begining of winter sleep.

End/
IRAN WATCH CANADA
Link to this news in Farsi:
http://jomhouri.com/a/00news/005494.php