RUZ-NĀMA-YE RASMI-E DAWLAT-E IRĀN

 

RUZ-NĀMA-YE RASMI-E DAWLAT-E IRĀN (The Official Journal of the Government of Iran), a newspaper published in Tehran as the official organ of government, replacing its precedent example Irān, which had been suspended following the 1908 coup d’etat of Moḥammad-ʿAli Shah (see CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION). When constitutional regime was restored, Majlis passed a law (Qānun-e tāʾsis-e ruz-nāma-ye rasmi), requiring the publication of an official newspaper. Thereupon, the Ministry of Interior assigned Mortażāqoli Khan Moaʾyyed-al-Mamālek Fekri, a well-known journalist of the time, the managing director of the upcoming newspaper. The first issue was published in a magazine format in sixty-eight pages on 18 Rabiʿ II 1329/18 April 1911, and has been published continuously up to now, albeit with some interruptions and slightly modified titles (Ruz-nāma-ye rasmi-e kešvar-e šāhanšāhi-e Irān, Ruz-nāma-ye rasmi-e Jomhuri-e eslāmi). This paper can rightly be called the continuation of the newspapers Ruz-nāma-ye waqāyeʿ-e ettefāqiya, Irān, and Ruz-nāma-yeIrān-e solṭāni (qq.v), but it can also be regarded as partly the supplement to the official newspaper of the Majlis (Majles), since it also carried details of parliamentary proceedings.. Ruz-nāma-ye rasmi was published three times a week until 1308 Š./1929, when it became a daily paper.

Moaʾyyed-al-Mamālek died in Ṯur 1297/April-May 1918 and his eldest son Šāhroḵ Fekri was officially assigned as his replacement by a royal letter of appointment. He continued to publish the paper in the same style until Mordād of the same year (July-August 1918), when Mirzā Ḥasan Woṯuq-al-Dawla, the prime minister, suspended its publication under the pretext of cutting the budget deficit but evidently for strengthening the semi-official newspaper Irān. . It resumed publication after a lapse of four and half years on 4 Bahman 1301 Š./25 January 1923, towards the end of the prime ministry of Aḥmad Qawām (Qawām-al-Salṭana). It was managed this time by Faḵr-al-Din Wafā, the publisher of the weekly Šehāb, whose appointment caused the formal protest of the former manager Šāhroḵ Fekri (Ṣadr Hāšemi, II, pp. 330-31), who considered himself better qualified to run the paper.

Ruz-nāma-ye rasmi carried official news concerning the royal court, the office of the prime minister, the proceedings of the Majlis and the texts of the laws it had passed, as well as significant official directives and appointments. In addition, sometimes series of articles were published to introduce administrative organizations and their tasks. When the journal adopted other titles, it only featured official materials.

Ruz-nāma-ye rasmi appeared in double-column 28 x 30 cm pages that varied in numbers; the average number of pages was 32. The size was increased in the second phase to approximately 23 x 36 cm, which stayed approximately constant thereafter. . It was printed for the first five years at the state printing house (maṭbaʿa-ye dawlati) and subsequently at other printing establishments. The annual subscription rate was initially set at 40 krans for Tehran but changed a number of times.

A complete set of Ruz-nāma-ye rasmi is kept at the Majlis Library and incomplete sets are available in most major libraries in Persia and elsewhere, at Cambridge University Library, Hamburg University Library, and the Library of School of Eastern Languages in Paris.

 

Bibliography:

Browne, Press and Poetry, pp. 93-94.

Ḵalil Moqaddam, Fehrest-e ruz-nāmahā-ye mawjud dar ketāb-ḵāna-ye markazi-e Fārs …, Shiraz, 1998, no. 150.

Foruḡ-al-Zamān Nuri Eṣfahāni, Rāhnemā-ye maṭbuʿāt:fehrest-e našriyāt-e mawjuddar ketāb-ḵāna-ye ʿomumi-e Ebn Meskuya-ye Eṣfahān, Isfahan, 2001, p. 42.

Ṣadr Hāšemi, II, pp. 329-32.

Ursula Sims-Williams, Union Catalogue of Persian Serials and Newspapers in British Libraries, London, 1985, no. 521.

Jahāngir Ṣolḥju, Tāriḵ-e maṭbuʿāt-e Irān wa jahān, Tehran, 1969, pp. 193-95.

(Nassereddin Parvin)

Originally Published: August 15, 2006

Last Updated: August 15, 2006