Kayhan

Kayhan (Persian: کيهان, English: The Cosmos) is a newspaper published in Tehran, Iran. It is considered "the most conservative Iranian newspaper."[1] Hossein Shariatmadari is the editor-in-chief of Kayhan. According to the report of the New York Times in 2007, his official position is representative of the Supreme Leader of Iran.[2]

This article is about the newspaper. For other uses, see Kayhan (disambiguation).
For the other newspaper, see Kayhan London.

Kayhan
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Keyhan Institute
Founder(s)Abdolrahman Faramarzi
Mostafa Mesbahzadeh
EditorHossein Shariatmadari
Founded27 May 1942 (1942)
Political alignmentPro-Constitution, Principalist, Conservative
HeadquartersFerdowsi Street, Tehran, Iran
OCLC number473890618
Websitekayhan.ir

Kayhan has about 1,000 employees worldwide.[2] There are conflicting reports about its circulation numbers: in 2006 the BBC gave it as 60,000–100,000 copies,[3] in 2007 the New York Times gave "about 70,000", and in 2008 a New York University School of Law journal article reported it as 350,000 copies.[4] Kayhan also publishes special foreign editions, which include the English-language Kayhan International.[1]

History and profile

Kayhan was founded in February 1943[5] by owner Abdolrahman Faramarzi and Mostafa Mesbahzadeh as editor-in-chief. Later the roles of Faramarzi and Mesbahzadeh were reversed. The paper supported Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi during his reign.[6] Published in Iran as well as in London, the newspaper had a circulation greater than one million prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 1974 Kayhan media group introduced itself as "the largest newspaper and magazine publishing house in the Middle East". Forugh Mesbahzadeh, the wife of Kayhan's major owner, officially appeared as the manager of the leading Iranian women's magazine, Zan-e Rooz.[7]

During the clashes between the Imperial forces and revolutionaries Kayhan and Ettela'at was censored.[8] After the overthrow of the Shah all of Mesbahzadeh's assets were seized, including the publishing plant, which was the main headquarters of the daily. Following the revolution Kayhan became a state-sponsored publication together with Ettela'at and Jomhouri-e Eslami of which publishers are directly appointed by the Supreme Leader.[9]

In May 1980, Ayatollah Khomeini named Ebrahim Yazdi, then foreign minister, as head of the daily.[10] Under the guidance of Mesbahzadeh, the London office of Kayhan continued its work and publishes a monarchist weekly issue known as Kayhan London, which has a small circulation. In 2006, Mesbahzadeh died at the age of 98 in Los Angeles, California.[1]

The paper focuses on political, cultural, social and economic news.[11]

Political orientation

Kayhan supports the Iranian government and the policies of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Shariatmadari stated that the newspaper and its staff "defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution."[12] Gareth Smyth, the former Iran correspondent of the Financial Times, contends that Kayhan articulates the political views of the "regime's fundamentalist camp."[13]

Shariatmadari rejects the labels "conservative" and "fundamentalist," which he had said "...make us sound like the Taliban." Instead, he calls himself and those with similar views "principlists". The Principlist faction comprises the majority of the Iranian Parliament.[2] This group is also referred to as the "neo-principlists" and includes such figures as Gholamali Haddad Adel and Saeed Jalili among the others.[14] In fact, the daily is the print media outlet of the group.[14]

Controversies

The newspaper became controversial in 2010 for iterating an unequivocal condemnation of then-French First Lady Carla Bruni for her open letter about the death sentence against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for adultery and alleged murder. The newspaper called Bruni an "Italian prostitute" and "the singer and decadent actress who managed to break [up] the Sarkozy family" who "deserves to die" for her "perverted lifestyle," reiterating the striking similarities between Ashtiani and Bruni, and also condemned actress Isabelle Adjani as a prostitute. The French foreign ministry condemned the comments as "unacceptable" and summoned the Iranian ambassador to France. The Iranian foreign ministry sought to distance itself from Kayhan's comments, with spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast stating that "The media can properly criticize the wrong and hostile policies of other countries by refraining from using insulting words. This is not correct."[15][16]

In 2020, following the expulsion of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Iran, Kayhan's editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, described the MSF as an "American puppet"[17] because it is "based in France and all anti-Iranian groups have a base in France.[18] On 28 April 2022, the same day as Yom HaShoah, Kayhan published an opinion piece in the front page praising Adolf Hitler and promoting anti-semitic tropes.[19]

After a Lebanese-American suspect stabbed the Indian-born author Salman Rushdie on 12 August 2022, Kayhan responded by congratulating "a thousand bravos ... to the brave and dutiful person who attacked the apostate and evil Salman Rushdie in New York... The hand of the man who tore the neck of God's enemy must be kissed”.[20]

See also

References
  1. Shapour Ghasemi (2006). "Kayhan Newspaper". Iran Chamber Society. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  2. Michael Slackman (22 September 2007). "Freed by Revolution, He Speaks for Iran's Hard-Liners". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  3. "The press in Iran". BBC News. 13 December 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  4. "Notable Middle Eastern" (PDF). The NYU Review of Law and Security (8–9): 14. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 December 2014.
  5. Arash Karami (15 March 2014). "Iran's Fourth Estate". Asharq Al Awsat. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  6. Ahmad Faroughy (1 December 1974). "Repression in Iran". Index on Censorship. 3 (4): 15. doi:10.1080/03064227408532367. S2CID 143139528.
  7. Liora Hendelman-Baavur (2019). Creating the Modern Iranian Woman: Popular Culture between Two Revolutions. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108627993. ISBN 9781108627993. S2CID 211433811.
  8. Nicholas M. Nikazmerad (1980). "A Chronological Survey of the Iranian Revolution". Iranian Studies. 13 (1/4): 336. doi:10.1080/00210868008701575. JSTOR 4310346.
  9. Mahmud Farjami (2014). "Political Satire as an Index of Press Freedom: A Review of Political Satire in the Iranian Press during the 2000s". Iranian Studies. 47 (2): 233. doi:10.1080/00210862.2013.860325. S2CID 145067513.
  10. "Khomenei's hard-liners triumph". The Spokesman Review. AP. May 1980. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  11. Abdolrasoul Jowkar; Fereshteh Didegah (2010). "Evaluating Iranian newspapers' web sites using correspondence analysis". Library Hi Tech. 28 (1): 119–130. doi:10.1108/07378831011026733. (subscription required)
  12. Steve Inskeep (5 February 2009). "Editor Upholds Ideology of Iran's Islamic Revolution". NPR. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  13. Gareth Smyth (2006). "Fundamentalists, Pragmatists, and the Rights of the Nation: Iranian Politics and Nuclear Confrontation" (PDF). The Century Foundation. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  14. Farzan Sabet (June 2013). "The Islamic Republic's political elite and Syria" (PDF). IranPolitik: The Iran Political Analysis Project. Archived from the original (Special Report) on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  15. Thomas Erdbrink (31 August 2010). "Iranian newspaper reiterates derogatory remarks about French first lady". The Washington Post.
  16. Robert Mackey (31 August 2010). "Iranian Newspaper Says Carla Bruni-Sarkozy 'Deserves to Die' for Objecting to Stoning". The New York Times.
  17. "Iran Rejects Offer Of Help By Doctors Without Borders To Fight Coronavirus". Radio Farda. 24 March 2020.
  18. Salem Al Ketbi. "Coronavirus and conspiracy: the mullahs as a model". www.salemalketbi.com. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  19. Siegal, Tobias (28 April 2022). "On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Iran paper publishes antisemitic piece praising Hitler". Times of Israel.
  20. "Iran's hardline newspapers praise Salman Rushdie's attacker". Reuters. 13 August 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
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