THE DAILY "SALAM" BANNED, CONTROVERSIAL PRESS BILL APPROVED IN THE MAJLES

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In one of their boldest move in many years, the ruling conservative ayatollahs stopped Wednesday the publication of the daily "Salam", considered as one of the country's most outspoken and popular dissident newspapers and at the same time, the conservative-controlled Majles approved a highly unpopular bill aimed at curbing press freedom.

Quoting a "reliable source", the official news agency IRNA said the ban had been notified to the paper on "verbal verdict" from the Judiciary.

"The source noted that the verdict was notified to newspaper's officials on phone ordering them not to publish the daily until further notice", IRNA reported in a short, laconic dispatch that was confirmed immediately during a press conference by Mr. Abbas Abdi, Salam's Deputy Editor who described the ban as "unprecedented".

Observers and analysts said after the publication in the paper's Tuesday issue of a highly sensitive and controversial secret report attributed to Mr. Sa'id Emami, the man the authorities identified as the mastermind of the last November-December chain murder of political and intellectual dissidents, they were not surprised by the measure against Salam.

Mr. Emami, alias Eslami, who served as the senior Deputy Intelligence Minister in charge of security and intelligence affairs under the hojatoleslam Ali Fallahian, was officially reported to have killed himself in prison by absorbing a hair-removing product.

In his report submitted to the then Information (Intelligence) Minister hojatoleslam Qorban'ali Dorri-Najafabadi, Mr. Emami, warns the authorities against the freedom of the Iranian independent press and dissident intellectuals he describes as "a big threat for the security of the State" and suggests ways and means to curb it, including discrediting leading writers, pitting them against each other and stopping their activities.

Analysts noted that the publication of the secret report coincided with the start of a debate in the Majles over a conservative-prepared bill aimed at curbing the already limited freedom of the press in the Islamic Republic.

According to "Salam", Mr. Emami, the master killer, in fact initiated the bill presented by 26 conservative deputies.

Mr. Dorri-Najafabadi resigned in February after he admitted that the murderers were official agents of his administration.

In a letter read in the Wednesday session of the Majles the hojatoleslam Ali Yunesi, the new Information Minister said contrary to Salam's allegations, the incriminated report was not confidential nor was it written by Mr. Emami, but by a team of advisers to the Minister and finally it did not dealt with the press law.

But the former Minister had himself confirmed that Mr. Emami was one of the Ministry's advisers at the time of the assassinations.

Mr. Mohammad Mokhtari, one of the writers Mr. Emami had named in his report as "dangerous" was one of the intellectuals assassinated by the Information Ministry's agents.

In his press conference, Mr. Abdi said that the document in the possession of Salam is in Mr. Emami's own handwriting and only parts of it dealing with the press were published.

Commenting the ban of Salam, Dr Karim Lahiji, the Paris-based president of the Iranian League of Human Rights said considering that the paper is owned by the ayatollah Mohammad Kho'einiha, an influential member of the Association of Militant Clergymen, the order could not come but from the leader of the regime, the ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i himself.

The telephone order for the closure of Salam came shortly after the Majles approved the general outlines of the bill amending the existing press law by 125 to 90, with more than 50 MPs absent.

Noting the absence of so many deputies from such an important debate, Mr. Reza Alijani, Editor of "Iran Farda" monthly said he was "certain" that if they kept out, it was due to strong pressures from "high above". He also observed that the Speaker, ayatollah Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri had personally intervened in defence of the proposed amendments.

Opposing the proposed amendment, Islamic Guidance Minister Ata'ollah Mohajerani observed that in preparing the project hastily, it's initiators have failed to consult with owners and editors of newspapers, experts, scholars and official of his Ministry, adding that not only the project was vague, but the restrictions it will impose on the press were in contradiction with certain principles of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, IRNA reported.

According to some proposed amendments, representatives from 2 ultra-conservative organisations would be added to the present five-members Press Advisory Board in order to shift the balance in favour of the hard liners.

In an open letter, pro-reforms directors, editors and owners of 12 publications, including dailies and periodicals, warned that the bill is aimed at depriving journalists and writers of their social rights, placing the press under the direct control of the conservatives, limiting journalists and writers activities, lessening role of the Guidance Minister, contradicting the cultural and political development of the country, disturbing the country's information dissemination system, harming international prestige of the Islamic Republic of Iran and bringing a special faction to rein over the press.

However, supporters of the amendment plan maintained that the plan will help in transparency of the press law, reinforce role of Iran's parliament to debate curbing press freedoms.

"The current press law is not sufficient to counter plots as it only holds editors-in-chief responsible while there are writers, translators, authors, reporters, poets, etc. in the cultural field whose plots can only be stopped by individual action against them", the defunct master killer would suggest in his report, published by Salam.