Iran Press/Iran news: Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said via a message that the freedom of the Press is government's main concern, reported Iran Press.
His remark came in a message released to mark the National Day of the Journalist in Iran.
President Hassan Rouhani’s message is as follows:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
We are on Journalist’s Day, but the history-building of its co-occurrence with the anniversary of the signing of the Constitutional Decree gives this week a special meaning. The press, for which journalists are a key part, are an element of democracy which constitutionalise political power.
It is impossible to imagine a world in which the press and journalists are not sufficiently free and powerful and that political power is constitutionalised and bound by law. If the treatment of Iran’s issues also depends on the same word -law-, then it is impossible to realise the sovereignty of the word in a world without independent press.
The Eleventh and Twelfth Governments have endeavoured, as far as possible, to safeguard the freedom of the press and to ensure their durability. We pursued the idea of freedom of the press and its stability and consistency by emphasising the need to remove unprofessional supervision on the press, but there has not yet been a solid basis for fully accepting such an idea.
Today's world and, consequently, the press have changed as a result of new technologies so that previous systems of press supervision, authorisation and regulation processes have become ineffective.
In a world where every citizen can create content in large quantities on the Internet, unnecessary formalities for obtaining permits for the press that have a few thousand circles are unacceptable.
The Eleventh and Twelfth Governments have advocated for the ease of access to the social media and citizens’ use of this space. We believe that inappropriate uses of this space constitute a very limited part of it, and we cannot prevent the overwhelming majority of people from being active in order to prevent inappropriate activities. One should not assume that the social media are a rival to the press. Just as the Internet failed to destroy the book, and the book, even in its paper form, still serves the needs of today's society, the press can provide the information they need, and the authenticity of the content produced in the official media remains true.
Providing a favourable environment for the media and the press, including guaranteeing freedom of expression and stabilising economic conditions, contributes to the financial stability of press institutions, which is the main achievement the government pursues regarding the press.
The press, of course, is experiencing difficulties like the rest of the economy, and this has affected the lives of journalists and other journalistic groups.
Despite all these problems, which are part of the overall economic and social system of the country, we are proud that we have systematically strived to uphold the freedom of information circulation and the protection of free media. 101/201
