Abdolkarim Lahidji, Vice President of FIDH

Q: How do you see Rooz?

A: One characteristic of Rooz is that it aims to stay in touch with Iranians living inside Iran, journalists, politicians and experts, and that is commendable. The right to access and publish information is one of the most fundamental and essential human rights. Unfortunately, in today’s Iran, because of the government’s pressure and intimidation and prison sentences handed out to many journalists in the past 4 or 5 years, and shutting down more than 100 journals, publications and newspapers, many journalists have been forced to either emigrate or temporarily stop their work in Iran. Unfortunately, a kind of auto-censorship has become prevalent in Iran, which in my opinion is even more disturbing than censorship itself. One must look for the news in between the lines. Many news reports are not published at all because of this environment. If a publication is based outside of Iran, it can overcome these challenges more effectively.

Like other electronic publications, Rooz is also subject to censorship, filtering and intimidation. In addition, one must keep in mind that not all of Iranians have access to the Internet – and I am not talking about villages or small cities, but also in many larger cities. Because of this, the number of internet users in Iran is not very impressive relative to the total population. There is hope that the number of internet users increases with each passing day, but with government intimidation and filtering of foreign-based publications, unfortunately, it is much harder for these publications to inform the Iranian people, when compared to domestic newspapers.

In any case, my suggestion to Rooz is to do more cultural work, and not to prioritize news reporting so much. Cultural work and informing people of political and social principles and human rights laws is something that our developing society has a dire need for.