Payvand's Iran News ...
8/9/03
Iranian journalists stage sit-in protest Friday
On this year's observance of `Journalists' Day' and to highlight the plight of Iranian journalists in this country, members of the Iran Journalists Association held a sit-in protest in Tehran on iFriday in front of its headquarters, IRNA reported.
Some 300 journalists and press officials attended the sit-in sponsored called by the association.
Addressing the gathering, Rajab-Ali Mazrou'i, head of the association, said that the move and the protest was purely professional and in line with their stated goals.
All those involved in press activities have been invited to the gathering, he added.
The association wrote a letter to the head of the Tehran Justice Department asking for permission to meet with all detained journalists, he said, expressing the hope that such permission will be granted.
Meanwhile, the journalists who attended the sit-in issued a resolution protesting the way Iranian journalists are currently being treated.
The day IRNA correspondent Mahmoud Saremi was martyred on August 7, 1998 in Afghanistan has since been observed as `Journalists' Day' in Iran.
Saremi was assassinated in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, when the Taliban attacked the building housing the Iranian Consulate. Eight diplomats were martyred along with him.
