عليرضا طاهري
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceMonday, April 08, 2002 - Compromise on the press court jury selection bill - IRIB resists Majles investigation of its finances - Second anniversary of the Berlin Conference - Unification of the exchange rate - Slowdown in population growth Criticisms of Majles Compromise on Revision of Press Court Jury Selection Bill * The Majles effort to revise the press court jury selection bill, which had been rejected four months ago by the Guardians Council, is a setback for press freedoms, according to the reformist MP Ahmad Burqani. Nemat Ahmadi, who was defense lawyer of many banned newspapers and their editors and publishers, calls the Majles move "a bitter compromise." Newspaper editor Masha'allah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman of the society to defend press freedoms, who had gone to jail after the judiciary closed three of his newspapers, wishes that Majles had resisted revising the bill. Lawyer Masud Khosravi says a permanent jury for press and political courts, which is the result of the compromise, violates the principle of having juries representative of the public opinion. (Alireza Taheri) Islamic Republic Broadcasting Sabotages Majles Investigation * The head of the Majles team assigned to investigate the Islamic Republic Broadcasting (IRIB), Valiollah Shojapuran, says the Majles will complain to the Islamic Republic Leader if IRIB continues to refuse to cooperate in the investigation. In spite of the opposition from conservative bodies such as Guardians and Expediency Councils, the Leader had agreed with Majles once before on the need for the investigation. Shojapouran tells Tehran press that IRIB has offered to bring documents out of their files to the Majles, but investigators insist on seeing the documents in their original locations. At issue is tens of billions of rials in income from advertising. The conservative IRIB blocks the reform faction's access to radio and television. (Siavash Ardalan) Special RFE/RL Report on the Second Anniversary of the Berlin Conference On the second anniversary of the Berlin conference, RFE/RL airs a series of interviews with lawyers, scholars and political activists whose lives were affected by the reaction of the Islamic Republic Judiciary to the conference participants. * Ms. Roshanak Dariush, a translator now living in Germany, tells RFE/RL that her husband, Khalil Rostamkhani, and his colleague Said Sadr, translators at the German Embassy in Tehran, were arrested because they worked in the Berlin conference. However, they were convicted to prison terms on the charge of membership in leftist groups for which they had already gone to jail 10 years earlier. Fearing her own arrest, Ms. Dariush she has not returned to Iran ever since the conference, since she too worked in the conference as a translator. Leftist documents from her archives at home were used to convict her husband, she adds. * Lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar, who gave a speech at the conference, says the conservative faction in Iran was particularly upset at the cooperation of secular intellectuals with the religious reformists in Khatami's camp. She tells RFE/RL that the Berlin conference changed the lives of its participants in ways they could not foresee, adding that she and her family, scholar Changiz Pahlavan, writer Kazem Kardavani and translator Roshanak Dariush now live in exile as refugees. (Shireen Famili) Unification of Foreign Exchange Rate: 19-day Scorecard * A money trader in Tehran tells RFE/RL that the dollar slid against the rial only slightly, after the central bank unified the exchange rate in Iran at 7,924 rials to the dollar on March 17, 2002. He says the new official rate is only 100 rials lower than the market rate of 8000. At the moment, the prospect of more income due to higher oil prices holds the rial steady. The banks have not yet started selling foreign exchange to the public at the official price, and the black market trade goes on as before. * The long overdue unification of the exchange rate will succeed providing other monetary policies do not contradict it, says economist Musa Ghani-nezhad. He tells RFE/RL that the unified exchange rate is no more inflationary than the previous multiple rate system. By providing cheap dollars at 1750 rials to qualified importers, the government was hiding inflation at a huge cost to public. * Hussein Sadeqi, head of the national association of the Islamic workers councils, tells RFE/RL that the unified exchange rate is inflationary and will directly affect the families of fixed income laborers. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) Population Growth Slows * New studies show that population growth rate has fallen to 1.4 percent from the high of nearly 4 percent in the 1976-1986 period. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris) WORLD * Israel expands siege of Palestinian towns, ignores appeals from the US and UK. (Ardavan Niknam, Prague; Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * Bush tells Israel to withdraw from Palestinian towns. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * Middle East leaders comment on the upcoming Powell visit. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * Iraq halts oil exports for one month in support of Palestinian resistance. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) * Iraq's move has little impact on world oil supplies, but oil prices jumped to $27 per barrel anyway. Iraq was the only country to heed rhw Islamic Republic Leader's call to Arabs for a one-month oil embargo against the west. Libya has verbally supported the call, but OPEC said there are no plans for an Arab oil embargo. Considering the anti-Israel and anti-American sentiments in Middle East, Iraq's move is seen as a means to raise the political cost to the US of a possible attack on Iraq. (Siavash Ardalan) * Chinese President will discuss the meaning of terrorism and ways to combat it during his upcoming trip to Germany, Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Iran. (Shahram Tehrani, Beijing) * Chinese President will discuss terrorism and trade with German officials. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) * Review of British press reports on Blair's visit to the US. (Shahran Tabari, London) * Supporters of Israel and Palestinian demonstrate in the US, France and other countries. (Ardavan Niknam, Prague; Jean Khakzad, Paris) * Ebrahim Faltas, a Palestinian priest trapped in the Bethlehem church of the Nativity tells RFE/RL during a phone interview from inside the church about the resistance of 200 armed and unarmed Palestinians under Israeli gunfire. One person died in the church from the fire and smoke caused by Israeli missiles. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) * Human rights organizations and international aid groups criticize Israel. (Golnaz Esfandiari) * 200 gather in Madrid in UN conference on aging. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) * Institutions using government subsidies, high tariffs, bureaucracy and corruption are the main obstacles to development in Middle East and African countries, according to a study published by the American Council on Foreign Relations. (Golnaz Esfandiari) ARTS AND IDEAS Songs and Song Makers * Parviz Yahaqqi, composer of popular songs. (Mahmud Khoshnam) One Book, One Author: "Globalism or Re-Colonization" * Ali Mohammadi, London-based professor of mass communications, talks to RFE/RL's book reviewer, Bahman Bastani about the new book he co-wrote with Mohammad Ahsan. Persian Satirical Poetry * The late professor Mohammad-Jafar Mahjub reviews the highlights of Persian satirical poetry and reads a few examples by classical and contemporary poets. (From RFE/RL archives.) Berlin Conference Special: Yusefi-Eshkevari's Speech on Women's Rights in Islam * On the second anniversary of the Berlin conference on the future of reforms in Iran, RFE/RL airs the historical speech by the jailed reformist cleric Hasan Yusefi-Eshkevari about women's rights in Islam. The speech was found insulting to Islam and heretical by the Special Court for Clergy, which defrocked Yusefi-Eshkevari and sentenced him to death. Eshkevari is now serving a two-year jail term on other charges, while his appeal is pending. (Golnaz Esfandiari) Last Word * Iraj Gorgin reads selections from classical Persian literature on the story of creation and the rites of Persian New Year Nowruz. (Iraj Gorgin) احمد بورقاني، يكي از چهره هاي شاخص اصلاحگرايان در مجلس ايران-صريحا مي گويد:اين عقب نشيني بر خلاف ميل باطني ما،تلاشي بود براي قانونمند كردن حوزه سياست. آقاي بورقاني بدون آن كه عبارت قانونمند كردن حوزه سياست را بشكافد، يادآوري مي كند:"هر چند شماري از انتقادات به طرح تشكيل هيات منصفه وارد است اما مناسبات جامعه امروز ايران اقدامات گام به گام را تجويز مي كند." در اين حال به نظر نمي رسد كه چنين توضيحاتي براي اكثريت مردم اصلاح طلب ايران خرسند كننده باشد.دكتر نعمت احمدي حقوقدان در تهران با تلخي مي گويد: "ما نبايد كارهايمان را چند بار تكرار كنيم. مگر ايران قطعه اي جدا از خاك دنياست؟ اقدامات مجلس وصله پينه كارهاي گذشته است و نتيجه يي نخواهد داد. براي نمونه، اگر دادگاهي تشكيل شود و رييس قوه قضاييه عضو هيات منصفه آن باشد، چنين دادگاهي طنزيست تلخ." ماشاالله شمس الواعظين، يكي از روزنامه نگاران اصلاحگراي ايران، كه مزه زندان و توقيف روزنامه هايش هنوز زير دندان اوست، نيز از اقدام مجلس آشكارا ناخشنود است. آقاي شمس الواعظين كه هم اكنون سخنگوي انجمن دفاع از آزادي مطبوعات در ايران است، مي گويد: "مجلس مي بايد طرح قانون گزينش اعضاي هيات منصفه را به همان صورتي كه دي ماه گذشته تصويب كرده بود، مجددا تاييد مي كرد و در راه پذيرش آن در شوراي نگهبان گام بر مي داشت." كانون ناخشنودي ها از عقب نشيني مجلس در برابر شوراي نگهبان، تركيب هيات هاي منصفه در محاكمات سياسي و مطبوعاتيست. مسعود خسروي، وكيل دادگستري و حقوقدان در تهران مي گويد: "حضور مسوولان دولتي در هيات هاي منصفه به اين هيات ها شكل صوري مي دهد و تركيبي ثابت براي اين هيات ها با فلسفه وجودي آن مغاير است." آقاي خسروي مي افزايد: "غرض از تشكيل هيات منصفه اين است كه شهروندان عادي نظر بدهند كه آيا روزنامه نگاري مرتكب جرم شده است يا نه؟" همين حقوقدان يادآوري مي كند: "هر چند نمايندگان مجلس ناچارند كه نظر شوراي نگهبان را تامين كنند اما داشتن يك هيات منصفه صوري، بد تر است از به كلي نداشتن هيات منصفه." حجه الاسلام محمود ايازي عضو مجمع مدرسين حوزه علميه قم نيز به عقب نشيني مجلس در برابر شوراي نگهبان خرده مي گيرد و مي گويد:"هياتي مي تواند معناي انصاف داشته باشد كه اعضاي آن بالطبع برخاسته از قشرهاي مختلف مردم باشند." تحليلگران مي گويند:اما، بنا بر طرح جديد و بازنگري شده در مجلس، ايجاد هياتي كه مورد نظر حجه الاسلام ايازي است، امريست نزديك به محال. افزوده بر اين، منتقدان مجلس مي گويند:اگر قرار باشد قاضي بي هيچ اعتنايي به راي هيات منصفه حكم بدهد، بود و نبود چنين هياتي علي السويه خواهد بود.دكتر نعمت احمدي تاكيد مي كند:"مهمترين نكته اين است كه اعضاي هيات منصفه نبايد انتصابي باشند." دكتر احمدي وابستگي اعضاي هيات هاي منصفه به دستگاه هاي حكومتي را نيز يكسره نادرست مي داند. تحليلگران مي گويند: بر پايه سياست گام به گامي كه آقاي بورقاني از آن ياد كرده است، مجلس تا رسيدن به هيات منصفه مورد نظر كارشنآسان، مجلس راه بسيار درازي در پيش دارد.
نمايندگان اصلاح گراي مجلس بر خلاف ميل باطني خود تن به تجديدنظر در طرح تشكيل هيات منصفه دادند. احمد بورقاني، يكي از اصلاحگرايان مجلس اين اقدام را "عقب نشيني" مجلس مي داند. دكتر نعمت احمدي، حقوقدان در تهران، سازش مجلس برسر تركيب هيات منصفه دادگاه مطبوعات را "طنزي تلخ" توصيف مي كند و ماشاء الله شمس الواعظين، روزنامه نگار و سخنگوي انجمن دفاع از آزادي مطبوعات از تغيير در طرحي كه ديماه گذشته در باره هيات منصفه دادگاه مطبوعات به تصويب رسانده بود، انتقاد مي كند. مسعود خسروي، حقوقدان مي گويد تركيب ثابت هيات هاي منصفه كه در اين طرح پيش بيني شده است با فلسفه وجودي آنها مغايرت دارد. براي مطالعه متن كامل گزارش راديوآزادي در باره تجديدنظر مجلس در طرح تشكيل هيات منصفه دادگاه هاي مطبوعات و جرائم سياسي، دگمه "متن فارسي" را كليك بزنيد.
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceMonday, April 08, 2002 - Compromise on the press court jury selection bill - IRIB resists Majles investigation of its finances - Second anniversary of the Berlin Conference - Unification of the exchange rate - Slowdown in population growth Criticisms of Majles Compromise on Revision of Press Court Jury Selection Bill * The Majles effort to revise the press court jury selection bill, which had been rejected four months ago by the Guardians Council, is a setback for press freedoms, according to the reformist MP Ahmad Burqani. Nemat Ahmadi, who was defense lawyer of many banned newspapers and their editors and publishers, calls the Majles move "a bitter compromise." Newspaper editor Masha'allah Shamsolvaezin, spokesman of the society to defend press freedoms, who had gone to jail after the judiciary closed three of his newspapers, wishes that Majles had resisted revising the bill. Lawyer Masud Khosravi says a permanent jury for press and political courts, which is the result of the compromise, violates the principle of having juries representative of the public opinion. (Alireza Taheri) Islamic Republic Broadcasting Sabotages Majles Investigation * The head of the Majles team assigned to investigate the Islamic Republic Broadcasting (IRIB), Valiollah Shojapuran, says the Majles will complain to the Islamic Republic Leader if IRIB continues to refuse to cooperate in the investigation. In spite of the opposition from conservative bodies such as Guardians and Expediency Councils, the Leader had agreed with Majles once before on the need for the investigation. Shojapouran tells Tehran press that IRIB has offered to bring documents out of their files to the Majles, but investigators insist on seeing the documents in their original locations. At issue is tens of billions of rials in income from advertising. The conservative IRIB blocks the reform faction's access to radio and television. (Siavash Ardalan) Special RFE/RL Report on the Second Anniversary of the Berlin Conference On the second anniversary of the Berlin conference, RFE/RL airs a series of interviews with lawyers, scholars and political activists whose lives were affected by the reaction of the Islamic Republic Judiciary to the conference participants. * Ms. Roshanak Dariush, a translator now living in Germany, tells RFE/RL that her husband, Khalil Rostamkhani, and his colleague Said Sadr, translators at the German Embassy in Tehran, were arrested because they worked in the Berlin conference. However, they were convicted to prison terms on the charge of membership in leftist groups for which they had already gone to jail 10 years earlier. Fearing her own arrest, Ms. Dariush she has not returned to Iran ever since the conference, since she too worked in the conference as a translator. Leftist documents from her archives at home were used to convict her husband, she adds. * Lawyer and human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar, who gave a speech at the conference, says the conservative faction in Iran was particularly upset at the cooperation of secular intellectuals with the religious reformists in Khatami's camp. She tells RFE/RL that the Berlin conference changed the lives of its participants in ways they could not foresee, adding that she and her family, scholar Changiz Pahlavan, writer Kazem Kardavani and translator Roshanak Dariush now live in exile as refugees. (Shireen Famili) Unification of Foreign Exchange Rate: 19-day Scorecard * A money trader in Tehran tells RFE/RL that the dollar slid against the rial only slightly, after the central bank unified the exchange rate in Iran at 7,924 rials to the dollar on March 17, 2002. He says the new official rate is only 100 rials lower than the market rate of 8000. At the moment, the prospect of more income due to higher oil prices holds the rial steady. The banks have not yet started selling foreign exchange to the public at the official price, and the black market trade goes on as before. * The long overdue unification of the exchange rate will succeed providing other monetary policies do not contradict it, says economist Musa Ghani-nezhad. He tells RFE/RL that the unified exchange rate is no more inflationary than the previous multiple rate system. By providing cheap dollars at 1750 rials to qualified importers, the government was hiding inflation at a huge cost to public. * Hussein Sadeqi, head of the national association of the Islamic workers councils, tells RFE/RL that the unified exchange rate is inflationary and will directly affect the families of fixed income laborers. (Fereydoun Zarnegar) Population Growth Slows * New studies show that population growth rate has fallen to 1.4 percent from the high of nearly 4 percent in the 1976-1986 period. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris) WORLD * Israel expands siege of Palestinian towns, ignores appeals from the US and UK. (Ardavan Niknam, Prague; Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * Bush tells Israel to withdraw from Palestinian towns. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * Middle East leaders comment on the upcoming Powell visit. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * Iraq halts oil exports for one month in support of Palestinian resistance. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) * Iraq's move has little impact on world oil supplies, but oil prices jumped to $27 per barrel anyway. Iraq was the only country to heed rhw Islamic Republic Leader's call to Arabs for a one-month oil embargo against the west. Libya has verbally supported the call, but OPEC said there are no plans for an Arab oil embargo. Considering the anti-Israel and anti-American sentiments in Middle East, Iraq's move is seen as a means to raise the political cost to the US of a possible attack on Iraq. (Siavash Ardalan) * Chinese President will discuss the meaning of terrorism and ways to combat it during his upcoming trip to Germany, Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Iran. (Shahram Tehrani, Beijing) * Chinese President will discuss terrorism and trade with German officials. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne) * Review of British press reports on Blair's visit to the US. (Shahran Tabari, London) * Supporters of Israel and Palestinian demonstrate in the US, France and other countries. (Ardavan Niknam, Prague; Jean Khakzad, Paris) * Ebrahim Faltas, a Palestinian priest trapped in the Bethlehem church of the Nativity tells RFE/RL during a phone interview from inside the church about the resistance of 200 armed and unarmed Palestinians under Israeli gunfire. One person died in the church from the fire and smoke caused by Israeli missiles. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) * Human rights organizations and international aid groups criticize Israel. (Golnaz Esfandiari) * 200 gather in Madrid in UN conference on aging. (Ahmad Ra'fat, Rome) * Institutions using government subsidies, high tariffs, bureaucracy and corruption are the main obstacles to development in Middle East and African countries, according to a study published by the American Council on Foreign Relations. (Golnaz Esfandiari) ARTS AND IDEAS Songs and Song Makers * Parviz Yahaqqi, composer of popular songs. (Mahmud Khoshnam) One Book, One Author: "Globalism or Re-Colonization" * Ali Mohammadi, London-based professor of mass communications, talks to RFE/RL's book reviewer, Bahman Bastani about the new book he co-wrote with Mohammad Ahsan. Persian Satirical Poetry * The late professor Mohammad-Jafar Mahjub reviews the highlights of Persian satirical poetry and reads a few examples by classical and contemporary poets. (From RFE/RL archives.) Berlin Conference Special: Yusefi-Eshkevari's Speech on Women's Rights in Islam * On the second anniversary of the Berlin conference on the future of reforms in Iran, RFE/RL airs the historical speech by the jailed reformist cleric Hasan Yusefi-Eshkevari about women's rights in Islam. The speech was found insulting to Islam and heretical by the Special Court for Clergy, which defrocked Yusefi-Eshkevari and sentenced him to death. Eshkevari is now serving a two-year jail term on other charges, while his appeal is pending. (Golnaz Esfandiari) Last Word * Iraj Gorgin reads selections from classical Persian literature on the story of creation and the rites of Persian New Year Nowruz. (Iraj Gorgin) احمد بورقاني، يكي از چهره هاي شاخص اصلاحگرايان در مجلس ايران-صريحا مي گويد:اين عقب نشيني بر خلاف ميل باطني ما،تلاشي بود براي قانونمند كردن حوزه سياست. آقاي بورقاني بدون آن كه عبارت قانونمند كردن حوزه سياست را بشكافد، يادآوري مي كند:"هر چند شماري از انتقادات به طرح تشكيل هيات منصفه وارد است اما مناسبات جامعه امروز ايران اقدامات گام به گام را تجويز مي كند." در اين حال به نظر نمي رسد كه چنين توضيحاتي براي اكثريت مردم اصلاح طلب ايران خرسند كننده باشد.دكتر نعمت احمدي حقوقدان در تهران با تلخي مي گويد: "ما نبايد كارهايمان را چند بار تكرار كنيم. مگر ايران قطعه اي جدا از خاك دنياست؟ اقدامات مجلس وصله پينه كارهاي گذشته است و نتيجه يي نخواهد داد. براي نمونه، اگر دادگاهي تشكيل شود و رييس قوه قضاييه عضو هيات منصفه آن باشد، چنين دادگاهي طنزيست تلخ." ماشاالله شمس الواعظين، يكي از روزنامه نگاران اصلاحگراي ايران، كه مزه زندان و توقيف روزنامه هايش هنوز زير دندان اوست، نيز از اقدام مجلس آشكارا ناخشنود است. آقاي شمس الواعظين كه هم اكنون سخنگوي انجمن دفاع از آزادي مطبوعات در ايران است، مي گويد: "مجلس مي بايد طرح قانون گزينش اعضاي هيات منصفه را به همان صورتي كه دي ماه گذشته تصويب كرده بود، مجددا تاييد مي كرد و در راه پذيرش آن در شوراي نگهبان گام بر مي داشت." كانون ناخشنودي ها از عقب نشيني مجلس در برابر شوراي نگهبان، تركيب هيات هاي منصفه در محاكمات سياسي و مطبوعاتيست. مسعود خسروي، وكيل دادگستري و حقوقدان در تهران مي گويد: "حضور مسوولان دولتي در هيات هاي منصفه به اين هيات ها شكل صوري مي دهد و تركيبي ثابت براي اين هيات ها با فلسفه وجودي آن مغاير است." آقاي خسروي مي افزايد: "غرض از تشكيل هيات منصفه اين است كه شهروندان عادي نظر بدهند كه آيا روزنامه نگاري مرتكب جرم شده است يا نه؟" همين حقوقدان يادآوري مي كند: "هر چند نمايندگان مجلس ناچارند كه نظر شوراي نگهبان را تامين كنند اما داشتن يك هيات منصفه صوري، بد تر است از به كلي نداشتن هيات منصفه." حجه الاسلام محمود ايازي عضو مجمع مدرسين حوزه علميه قم نيز به عقب نشيني مجلس در برابر شوراي نگهبان خرده مي گيرد و مي گويد:"هياتي مي تواند معناي انصاف داشته باشد كه اعضاي آن بالطبع برخاسته از قشرهاي مختلف مردم باشند." تحليلگران مي گويند:اما، بنا بر طرح جديد و بازنگري شده در مجلس، ايجاد هياتي كه مورد نظر حجه الاسلام ايازي است، امريست نزديك به محال. افزوده بر اين، منتقدان مجلس مي گويند:اگر قرار باشد قاضي بي هيچ اعتنايي به راي هيات منصفه حكم بدهد، بود و نبود چنين هياتي علي السويه خواهد بود.دكتر نعمت احمدي تاكيد مي كند:"مهمترين نكته اين است كه اعضاي هيات منصفه نبايد انتصابي باشند." دكتر احمدي وابستگي اعضاي هيات هاي منصفه به دستگاه هاي حكومتي را نيز يكسره نادرست مي داند. تحليلگران مي گويند: بر پايه سياست گام به گامي كه آقاي بورقاني از آن ياد كرده است، مجلس تا رسيدن به هيات منصفه مورد نظر كارشنآسان، مجلس راه بسيار درازي در پيش دارد.
نمايندگان اصلاح گراي مجلس بر خلاف ميل باطني خود تن به تجديدنظر در طرح تشكيل هيات منصفه دادند. احمد بورقاني، يكي از اصلاحگرايان مجلس اين اقدام را "عقب نشيني" مجلس مي داند. دكتر نعمت احمدي، حقوقدان در تهران، سازش مجلس برسر تركيب هيات منصفه دادگاه مطبوعات را "طنزي تلخ" توصيف مي كند و ماشاء الله شمس الواعظين، روزنامه نگار و سخنگوي انجمن دفاع از آزادي مطبوعات از تغيير در طرحي كه ديماه گذشته در باره هيات منصفه دادگاه مطبوعات به تصويب رسانده بود، انتقاد مي كند. مسعود خسروي، حقوقدان مي گويد تركيب ثابت هيات هاي منصفه كه در اين طرح پيش بيني شده است با فلسفه وجودي آنها مغايرت دارد. براي مطالعه متن كامل گزارش راديوآزادي در باره تجديدنظر مجلس در طرح تشكيل هيات منصفه دادگاه هاي مطبوعات و جرائم سياسي، دگمه "متن فارسي" را كليك بزنيد.
