Senior cleric condemns Islamic Republic's media policies

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council condemned censorship and fabrication of facts in the Islamic Republic and described such policies as "futile."

ILNA reports today that Ayatollah Rafsanjani stressed that efforts to ban the media, block news and filter information outlets is “futile” and advised that in today’s world, we must “coordinate our actions with human principles.”

He added: “We must create an open space and fall into step with the rest of the world.”

Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s controlled criticism of Iran’s media policies comes at a time that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supporters have accused him and his children of fomenting the post-election unrest.

On July 16 of last year, Ayatollah Rafsanjani led the Mass Friday Prayers in Tehran and during his sermon he called for the release of political prisoners, creation of an open space accepting of comments and critical exchange as well as appeasement of the families of post-election victims.

These comments raised the objection of the conservative factions. Even Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has implicitly condemned Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s political alignment in the post election events.

Iranian judiciary recently issued a warrant for the arrest of Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanajni. Medhi Hashemi who is currently in the UK, according to the announcement of Iran’s Minister of Intelligence, will be arrested in case of return to Iran.

A number of post-election detainees in the notorious mass trial of detained opposition figures last summer, named Mehdi Hashemi as one of the perpetrators of the post-election unrest.