TEHRAN, March 8 (MNA) – Iran’s president Rouhani has said the government is committed to ‘responsible freedom.’




Hassan Rouhani addressed the closing ceremony of the 20th festival of press, news agencies and news websites today in Vahdat Amphitheatre today (Saturday). “Every society has sacrosanct rules not to be violated by anyone in the public. If any media outlet violated these sacrosanct rules, it would effectively cut its interaction with the public and society alike,” said Rouhani.

Rouhani defined the Festival as ‘lending due respect to the freedom of expression and free circulation of information,’ believing that in any country where freedom of expression and press guaranteed, the country would move in the path to advancement. “But if in a society the mouths are shut and pens broken, public trust would be lost in domestic outlets and public would turn for outside sources for reliable news,” Rouhani added, “let the terrain for pen be the terrain also for expression,” he appealed.

“Let us allow the facts explained for the public; however, freedom of speech should be limited to specific cultural and historical, religious and social conditions of the country,” the president said. “All religious taboos should be respected by all,” he maintained.

Rouhani rhetorically asked why after last 35 years, no single authority in the country was satisfied with the current situation. “Where did lie the problem? If through policing measures, it was possible to handle the cultural issues, today we would not have such concerns today. Addiction, divorce, class conflicts and gaps in social classes are tooted in the fact that the rule of political game in this country is not respected and committed to,” Rouhani asserted.

On the authority vouchsafed by the system to the Ministry of Culture, Rouhani again asked a rhetorical question that to what extent the minister was the true authority. “What cultural budget the ministry and other government sectors receive from culture budgets of the country? How much budget is received by other institutions, which are beyond the scope of the jurisdiction of government, and consume the public budget,” Rouhani complained, “larger part of cultural budgets is not in the hand of the executive power, or goes for institutions not under the supervision of the government.”

“I assign the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution to address the issue to find what happens for such public budgets in culture sector,” Rouhani was quoted as saying, “if in media the moderation is the prime importance, then there should be a balance between public sector and private media outlets.”

Asking the rhetorical question that how many news agencies, websites, newspapers, and periodicals belonged to the public sectors which use these budgets, Rouhani told that to what extent the private sector media and newspapers enjoyed the budget. “Why the sapling of our media would not grow to a full and stout tree and why it would not bear fruits?” asked Rouhani, “why our media industry is not independent?”

Rouhani believed that the government had the mission to ‘create balance’ among the media. “From the beginning, the government believed that the culture should be left for cultural experts and specialists to handle the issue according to the transparent law,” he said.

In part of his address, Rouhani asked whether the professional ethics of the media were improved. “Have the slanders and libels dwindled? If so, we have been successful, and if not, we should find why,” Rouhani asserted.

He called all media activists and managers to say the realities to the public to ‘line the public mentality in the path for national interests,’ and to avoid or reduce the slogans. “The lack of ethics is the main problem in our society. The issue is lack of moderation and resorts to extremes. Why some media would enjoy insurmountable forts, and no one could even approach their ivory, neither executive, nor judiciary and legislative branches,” Rouhani asked rhetorically again.

“All media outlets should enjoy the same rights; if anyone supposed themselves in superior place, the government would not recognize it as such,” the president warned, “all media should have impunity equally.”

“Why some have more freedoms and some other s have not? The critics are free and will be free; but let the supporters of government also enjoy the same level of security margin,” Rouhani demanded.

On the Targeted Subsidies Plan, Rouhani said that the governments dare to the second stage of the Plan required company of the media, which they should play their roles to explain the conditions to the public. “The money from the energy items is converted to cash subsidies and distributed to the public as subsidies,” Rouhani said.

By Mehr News Agency

 

The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.