Saeed Rajabi Froutan wrote in Etemad newspaper:
Seyyed Abbas Salehi, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, is perhaps the first minister of the 14th government who participated in a press conference with a large number of journalists and answered their questions. From the past, some ministers have considered it sufficient to respond to reporters on the go in the government yard and they don’t look for more trouble in their opinion!
In this article, I will mention some points from this conversation.
At the beginning of the meeting, Seyyed Abbas Salehi spoke about his interest in accountability and transparency, as he is from the media. He interpreted this as being safe behind a glass wall.
Dr. Salehi’s honest tone and expression is a positive point for him. Without exaggerating the work done, he also pointed out the shortcomings and shortcomings, and in one place, without hiding, announced the existence of a black list that includes a limited number of people of culture and art.
Of course, he did not mention which legal article prohibits some celebrities from working, and if the judicial courts have issued a ruling in this regard, which legal texts do they refer to.
Elsewhere, Salehi talked about the retention of some films in the Fajr Film Festival due to the regulations according to which unlicensed films that have participated in international festivals do not have the right to participate in the upcoming festival. This is despite the fact that a number of films entered the competition section have already participated in foreign festivals. Of course, I am not aware that such films have participated in cinema assemblies with or without a screening license.
For this reason, it is necessary that more than the Minister of Guidance, his deputies, especially in the fields of cinema, art, books and the press, extend the question and answer sessions with journalists. For example, in the recent meeting of the minister regarding book censorship and auditing, he pointed out the correct point that the world has changed and with the very low circulation of books, there may be no need to continue the existing auditing mechanisms.
. He spoke about the face-to-face dialogue of “book reviewers” with the authors so that the author has the opportunity to defend the text of his book. This general information does not seem convincing and sufficient for curious journalists in the field of books. They would like to know, considering that the phenomenon of uploading and publishing unlicensed books on the Internet is a response to Irshad’s pressures and audits, what are the executive measures of Irshad’s Cultural Vice-Chancellor to ease the work of publishers and authors? How is the impact of extensive changes in the communication world considered in the licensing process?
Unfortunately, what is currently being observed is the continuation of the dissatisfaction of the authors and the Bani-Israeli flaws of some book reviewers, which sometimes looks ridiculous.
This issue is also evident in the realm of cinema, and the process of issuing filmmaking and screening licenses continues in the context of the past 40 years, and apart from case discussions, no specific program has been announced so far to modify and change the procedures according to the wishes of filmmakers and the developments that have occurred in cinema technology. Based on this, the media meetings of the vice presidents are an opportunity for them to talk about the details of their implementation plans instead of general and repetitive positions.
Let me address another aspect of the Minister of Culture’s speech; Where he said about the deepening of the gap and reduction of social capital between artists and the government in recent years: “In general, we have a challenge of social capital in governance, and all surveys show the trend and speed of the decline of trust in rulers and the governance system. It gained more momentum in the field of culture and art. Anger, distance, protest and hatred were different forms of this social reality. We should not put our heads under the snow like partridges. In the people of culture and art, this happened twice. The most important issue is this. “If we don’t have the trust of the stakeholders, nothing will happen.” This realistic and essentially medical attitude should be understood in the security and judicial fields as well, so that once and for all some of the limitations of the artists’ careers can be solved, and in return they also stop being stubborn and radical. (Unless they consciously chose this path) In the past few months, the Minister of Guidance has not given an enlightening answer in this regard, and it can be inferred from his words that apparently they are the decision-makers of other authorities and the Minister’s request is not very effective. The minister of guidance of the 13th government considered one of his achievements to be the unprecedented jump in the ministry’s budget. In the held press meeting, it was revealed that the budget of the Ministry of Guidance has only increased by 17% compared to the previous year, which is not considered an increase considering the annual inflation. Dr. Salehi reminded that only 6 billion and 200 million have been allocated out of the 36 projects in the approved budget, which he probably meant by 6 projects.
There is no doubt that the former minister’s close relationship and history of friendship with the late Raisi had caused funds to be injected into the ministry probably outside of the scope or from other sources, but the increase in funds was not officially seen in the current year’s budget until the then minister used the previous method. Seeking to attract funding. But it was fate that the 13th government would give its place to the next elected government after three years. The last point is that it turned out that the Minister of Education is not satisfied with entrusting the monitoring of the content to the radio and television and has not found a justification for it. According to him, an integrated network should deal with such matters, and the division of work and separation of duties does not make sense in it. Pointing out that it is subject to the law, he said: “Currently, I don’t see a clear path for this connected network system, and I don’t know when this will be completed.”