Paper attacked by Khomeiny closes in protest

Press, 14 May 1979, Page 9

Paper attacked by Khomeiny closes in protest

International

NZPA-Reuter

Teheran

An Iranian soldier and two policemen a re reported to have been executed, and a leading independent newspaper has suspended public ation to protest against criticism bv the revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinv.

State radio said an army officer had been shot in the central city of Ishahan after a revolutionary court convicted him of killing one person during an anti-Shah rally before the revolution. The’ broadcast also reported the executions on Friday of two state policemen in the northern city of Gorgan for timilar convictions.

Since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s Government was toppled in February, 204 persons have died before Islamic firing squads. The decision to close the Teheran daily, “Ayandegan,” coincided with a march by hundreds of Khomeiny backers demanding that the paper and two others be shut down for carrying articles that displeased Ayatollah Khomeiny. But the revolutionary Government has said it will lot close the papers.

The “Ayandegan” Saturday edition carried one story

in reply to Ayatollah Khomeiny’s attack on it, saying:

■ “With the present situation, work is impossible. “The Government must make clear its position with regard to freedom of the press. That is why we had a revolution in the first place, i Until then, this newspaper will not be printed.”

Marchers outside the newspaper’s offices passed a resolution that included: “We declare that any newspaper publishing attacks on any person should be capable of presenting solid proof in a court of law. Otherwise, they will be held responsible as traitors to the revolution.”

A member of the “Ayandegan” staff said that during the Shah’s regime, “We had to confront direct censorship, now it is being done indirectly with the same suppressive results.” The New York Times New

Service said the newspaper controversy marked the clearest and sharpest clash yet between the Islamic camp of the Ayatollah and the secular, liberal, and Leftist elements that joined in the revolution to overthrow the Shah and who have found themselves at odds ever since.

University students, liberals, and intellectuals carried stacks of extra copies into the streets to sell during the day, swelling the normal circulation, about 300,000 to 450,000. Many newsstands dealers shunned the paper, and at noon several hundred people marched into the city centre denouncing it. The controversy began on Thursday when Ayatollah Khomeiny’s office in Qom announced that the revolutionary leader was so upset over “Ayandegan” policies that he would never read it again. There were two articles at

i issue, though Islamic fund- ! amentalists have been chafing for months at the newspaper’s straightforward reporting and its practice of printing opinion and essays from a variety of political positions. The first article was a reprint of an interview with Ayatollah Khomeiny carried by “Le Monde” in which he specifically said the recent assassinations of two important figures had not been carried out by Leftists, but were the product of agents of American imperialism. The funeral of one of the victims. Ayatollah Morteza Motahari, ■ the reputed chairman of the secret Revolutionary Council, was marked by anti-communist slogans and attacks on the Left by religious figures.

The second article indicated that Forgan, the organisation that says its carried out the assassinations, was, as it said it was, a group of

fanatic followers of the teachings of Dr Ali Shariati. He sought to build a radical political philosophy by returning to the precepts of Islam and contended that true religious values had been betrayed by self-seek-ing clergymen. The contention that a religious conflict, no matter how abstruse, was behind the killings rather than Leftist or other demonstrably foreign influences appears to be highly upsetting to the religious revolutionary leadership. The “Ayandegan” office in the city of Shiraz was taken over by armed men on Friday. Its office in Bushire was burned down, and the one in Meshed was attacked by a mob. There was a demonstration against the paper in Tabriz, and in Dizful, the names of people buying the paper were written down. In Isfahan, copies were stopped at the airport.