On November 19, the Iranian daily Mardom-Salari analysed the outcome of the 14th Press Festival in Iran.
Hereby, a list of the daily's analysis:
- The number of publications is far below the standard limits, and the level of the study of publications in the country is minimal.
- Lack of exact information regarding the time of the convocation of the Exhibition.
- The choice of the venue of the Press Festival can be considered as another weakness of the Press Festival. The Centre for the Development of Thought in Children and Youth was not a suitable venue for the convocation of the Press Festival.
- Government-owned news agencies occupied the best areas in the Exhibition.
- The pavilions of the government-owned and pro-government newspapers were located in the best halls.
- The government gave prizes to eight journalists, who were critical of the government.However, it was not clear the criterion of the government for the awarding and whether the works that had been published had been scrutinized by the President's media consultants, or whether due to the shortage of time, a few were selectively scrutinized in view of the fact that till a week prior to the convening of the closing ceremonies of the Press Festival, there had been no mention of the award of prizes in this category, at least not any official announcement to that effect.
- On the other hand, some individuals such as Hoseyn Shari'atmadari and Kazem Anbarlu'i - who are known for their support to the government and the President in the media - had been introduced as the chosen critics of the government.
