Shahram Rafizadeh

On Thursday, a decade of Iranian journalism was buried along with Mehran Ghasemi. ‎Mehran was not the entirety of Iranian journalism in the past decade, but he was its ‎symbol; a symbol that we buried with our sadness and tears.‎

He was the symbol of understanding, humility, courage, kindness, seriousness, potential, ‎freedom, and certainly all the pains and pressures endured by journalists in Iran in the ‎past decade. That is why I say, on Thursday, we buried a decade of journalism in Iran. ‎

It is not enough to simply praise such a dear symbol. Like my other colleagues, I loved ‎him very much, I laughed with him, I consumed news with him. I fought with Mehran ‎for compensation, and I cried with him and for his departure. ‎

Look at his photographs closely. Behind that smile, you can see dozens of suspensions ‎and bans, unpaid wages, low wages, a lot of hardship, the weight of censorship and self-‎censorship, and hours of bargaining to push the barriers of censorship, imposed by both ‎government and culture. ‎

Take a look at his resume: writing for Yas-e No, E’temad, Vaghaye Ettefaghiye, Shargh, ‎Tose’e, Shahrvand Emrouz, and E’temad Melli reflects only a small part of his ‎achievements; and also the years when he went from one newspaper to another. These ‎newspapers were either shut down or are facing suspension by government. ‎

I do not fancy that Mehran has left a lot of money behind from his carrier in journalism, ‎like many of our other journalists. ‎

Writing for reformist newspapers during these years placed Mehran Ghasemi and many ‎other journalists like him in a bind; surrounded on the one hand by pressure, censorship, ‎trials, and thousands of other games played by the government, and surrounded on the ‎other hand by the absence of adequate professional rights and compensation, due to ‎weakness of independent journalism in Iran. ‎

The death of three journalists in fewer than forty days due to illness and stroke points to ‎this bind, which is completed with death. The list of young, dead journalists in recent ‎years is long. One can prepare a long list of journalists who made a name for themselves ‎during this decade but were forced to “leave the scene” for one reason or another. ‎

There are other lists too; of detained journalists, of tried journalists, of summoned ‎journalists, of imprisoned journalists, of fired journalists, of censored journalists. ‎

Add to this list the names of uninsured journalists, unemployed journalists, unpaid ‎journalists, homeless journalists, and so on. ‎

It is painful to listen to the story of E’temad Melli’s chief about how officials at the ‎Ministry of Culture refused to give permission to bury Mehran in a section of Behesht-e ‎Zahra dedicated to artists and journalists. ‎

Of course, Mehran and our other journalists have no need for the sympathy or pity of ‎power-grabbers and power-lovers , but we remember and will continue to remember what ‎the people have done in the past with the graves of power-worshippers. ‎