Media rights group condemns Iran journalist arrests

PARIS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - An international media rights group condemned Iran's closure of a leading pro-reform daily today and criticised Tehran for creating ''the West Asia's biggest prison for the press''.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said journalist Soheil Assefi had been detained on August 4, following the detention of Masoud Bastani and Farshad Gorbanpour on July 31.

''His detention brings to 11 the number of journalists and cyber-dissidents held in Iran, which is the West Asia's biggest prison for the press,'' it said in a statement.

''Iran must stop hounding journalists by bringing trumped-up charges against them.'' There was no immediate comment from the government, but it routinely dismisses allegations of rights violations.

Reporters without Borders said Bastani had been freed after several hours but that Gorbanpour was transferred to Tehran's Evin prison. It said they were working for a news Web site and pro-reform newspapers.

Rights groups and diplomats say Iran has launched a broad crackdown on dissenting voices in the country, which is under growing Western pressure over its disputed nuclear programme.

Iran says it allows free speech, but journalists say they have to tread carefully to avoid closure.

Yesterday, the Sharq (East) newspaper was closed three months after it reappeared on news stands following a ban, its director said, the second publication critical of the government to be shut since July.

Iran's Press Supervisory Board banned it because of an interview with a poet who has written about homosexuality, the Fars News Agency said. Homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in Iran, which implements Islamic sharia law.

In early July, Iran shut down the pro-reform Ham Mihan (Compatriot) newspaper, two months after it was launched, on a legal technicality, according to its publisher.

Since 2000, Iran has closed more than 100 publications, accusing many of being ''pawns of the West''. Many subsequently reopened under different names.

Late last month, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said two Kurdish journalists had been sentenced to death for mounting an ''armed struggle against the system''. The spokesman said they had 20 days to appeal their verdicts.

''We are alarmed that this death sentence has been issued in a closed trial,'' Executive Director Joel Simon of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in an August 6 statement.

''Iranian authorities must provide a fair and transparent legal process.'' REUTERS AE VC2245