The 20th Press and News Agencies Exhibition opened Saturday at Tehran’s Grand Mussala, with the minister of culture and Islamic guidance as keynote speaker.
Ali Jannati highlighted the theme of the exhibition ‘’Responsible Freedom,’’ saying that freedom is the basic core of human values and maintained that this freedom must also be reflected in the press. He called on the media and news organizations to practice ‘’responsible freedom’’ and at the same time preserve their ‘’dignity and independence.’’ He further stressed the need “for a press free from government influence” and said ‘’the government will gradually move away from media involvement and delegate the task to the private sector.’’
In another part of the ceremony, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani took the podium. Larijani said that a ‘’vibrant press’’ is indispensible to a healthy society. He asked members of the media and journalists to ‘’embrace everyday social issues’’ instead of focusing on big international headlines, and called for more attention to domestic and regional events.
Emphasis on Economy
He further emphasized ‘’economic issues’’ and said although the work of some economic dailies is significant in this area, “but we still need more attention to the economy, which is a daily concern of the people. ‘’Although some good economic initiatives were taken by the government, we are still far from an economic boom,’’ he said.
The senior lawmaker drew attention to the nuclear issue saying ‘’an agreement’’ with world powers would be beneficial to the country. ‘’We have reiterated that we are not after nuclear weapons and the best argument is the Supreme Leader’s fatwa prohibiting atomic weapons,’’ Larijani said. He hoped that with the efforts of ‘’adept negotiators at the foreign ministry, a good agreement will be achieved within the deadline of November 24.”
Later, Larijani along with Hussein Entezami, the deputy minister of culture for press affairs, visited the Financial Tribune stall and seemed rather surprised to see an English economic daily. He welcomed the fifth English-language publication in Iran and encouraged the staff to keep up their work. More than 560 publications, media outlets and news agencies are attending the annual event, along with the political and economic press, cultural publications, institutions, organizations and associations. There is a section for 120 foreign press and news agencies which have offices in Iran.
(Photo by: Saghar Ghorbani)
