cinema trust More than four months have passed since the presence of Seyed Abbas Salehi in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and with the emphasis that is heard from this ministry in order to clarify, we can expect that on the eve of Fajr festivals, the financial report of events similar to last year will be published.
According to ISNA, during his previous tenure in the Ministry of Guidance, Salehi was a leader in the issue of transparency, especially in the publication of financial reports, and he appointed Hossein Tzamami – who is now the deputy of the development of management and resources of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance – as the secretary of the publication and open access commission. According to the information, the officer followed up on this matter.
At that time, numerous reports were presented on the issuance of cultural and artistic licenses, the amount of support given to natural and legal persons for cultural and artistic activities, as well as the financial expenses spent on holding numerous events. The artistic deputy and the cinema organization were among the sub-categories of the Ministry of Guidance that published reports in the direction of clarification, and apart from the figures published to support production in cinema and theater, they made available to the public detailed reports on the expenses of various film and theater festivals.
The publication of these types of reports was stopped after the end of the 12th government and the “transparency” system became an ornamental section on the website of the Ministry of Culture and Guidance. The reason for stopping the publication of this information was asked many times from the relevant officials in the ministry, but they never gave a clear answer, and even in one case, a high-ranking official of the ministry stated that he was unaware of the whole story and that there is a clarification system on the ministry’s website.
In this way, the clarification was not implemented in the way that was seen before, especially in the two fields of cinema and theater, except for one time, which was a few months ago and in the last days of the 13th government, when the Farabi Cinema Foundation, under the then management of Majid Zain El Abdin a report published about the support of this foundation to filmmakers and screenwriters.
But now that Abbas Salehi is sitting on the post of the Ministry of Guidance again and he has Hossein Tazami by his side – who has expressed his extreme view of transparency in interviews, emphasizing the priority of transparency in the public sector – it is expected that the process of publishing reports on the topic of transparency will resume as before. Of course, it seems that actions have been started in this field – apart from administrative and directive letters – but there is still a long way to reach the transparency of those days.
In the first few months of the new government’s activities, several festivals were held in the fields of cinema and theater, including Tehran Short Film Festivals, Cinema Haqit, Hamadan Children’s and Youth Theater, Marivan Street Theater, Tehran-Mobarak Puppet Theater, and Sahibdelan Theater Festival. It is being held, and rumors are heard about the strange income and expenditure of some of them, especially considering the quality of the event. Also, on the eve of the establishment of two Fajr theater and film festivals, it is appropriate that the financial report of at least the 41st and 42nd periods of the festivals be published; This is an expectation that has been raised not only for Fajr festivals but also for the entire collections affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Cinema Organization.
In July of this year, in a letter to the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the Association of Independent Producers, referring to the presence of Hossein Tazami (former head of the Cinema Organization) in creating a building of transparency in the Cinema Organization, requested the Minister to issue an order to the managers of the Ministry’s subdivisions to follow the procedure of the previous period. Ministry of Salehi), to provide a transparent financial report in all departments, especially the cinema organization.
In a part of this letter, it was written: “Undoubtedly, clarification of the financial performance of the foundations and sub-sections, especially the Farabi Cinema Foundation, the Center for the Development of Documentary and Experimental Cinema, Cinemashahr, the Art Credit Fund, etc., including the announcement and publication of the names of the productions with the amount of participation The government, the amount received by people and project managers, the expenses related to the presence of managers and representatives of the subcategories in international and global events and festivals will be an important reminder of the time of His Highness’ ministry.
In this context, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in November of this year, in a report recalling the first clarification instructions in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in June 2017, emphasized: the information on the cost of the device, the instructions approved by different units in a centralized manner, the audit report of the last year (1402) of the included units Clarification, list of details of media, publishers, etc. that have received the paper, costing of the latest artistic cultural events (national or provincial), cultural events including exhibitions The media, book and Quran exhibition and Fajr festivals are among the information published in the transparency system of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Therefore, according to the promises made as well as the requests and emphasis raised, it is not unreasonable to expect the people of culture and art to know how much of the approved budgets have been allocated in these years and more importantly, how it has been spent, especially in the field of cinema and Theater, which has always had more margins than other fields.