Press Jury Member Criticizes Government for Suing Media

In a continuation of the attack on the government regarding its treatment of the media, Ali Akbar Ash'ari, a member of the Iranian Press Jury, criticized Hassan Rouhani's government for suing media outlets. Ali Akbar Ash'ari, a cultural advisor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his presidency and his proposed minister for education, criticized Rouhani's government at the Press Exhibition, stating that despite its claims, it does not withdraw lawsuits against the media. In an interview with Mehr News Agency, this Press Jury member advised the government to raise its 'tolerance threshold.' He pointed out that Rouhani's statements at the Press Exhibition on Saturday contradicted the government's actions. President Rouhani, in his speech at the Press Exhibition on Saturday, made remarks about pressure on the media that faced a sharp reaction from the head of the judiciary. Rouhani said, 'What can be achieved from a broken pen and a sealed mouth? Let us not break pens for baseless excuses, nor silence mouths for unsubstantiated reasons; let there be freedom in this society and let freedom be responsible. Security is essential for us today, but do not think that security is created or maintained solely with a gun, though a gun is necessary in its place. But what about the pen? What about expression? And what about culture?' Following these remarks, Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, accused Rouhani of having repeatedly asked why action was not taken against certain newspapers or websites, while he calls for freedom of the press among journalists, saying not to break pens and silence mouths. Some media outlets and conservative media activists accuse Rouhani's government of taking the path of suing these media. Rojanews, Jahannews, Vatan-e-Emruz, Yalasarat, Student News Agency, and the magazine Ramz-e-Obour are among the conservative publications and websites that have been sued by the government and its affiliated individuals and institutions. Rouhani had previously explicitly criticized that 'if information, guns, money, newspapers, news agencies, and other manifestations of power are concentrated in one institution, even if they are Abu Dharr and Salman, it becomes corrupt.' In this context, the criticism of Rouhani's legal deputy regarding 'dual treatment of the press and media inequality' and the lawsuit against Hossein Shariatmadari by 'government agencies' highlights the changing landscape of 'proxy wars'; a war against the people in the streets of Iran.