Police Department and Press Censorship in the First Pahlavi Era

The press as the most important mass media and as a tool for directing public opinion in the First Pahlavi Era faced many ups and downs. Alteration in the political system, the tendency toward dictatorship government and the implementation of pseudo-modernist programs affect the existence of press. In this period, the press had to write in congruence and in sync with the government programs, otherwise they were no longer survival. The synchronization of press with the government programs and the censorship of public opinion, against the government were entrusted to the Police Department. The press censorship, contrary to common view, was not done in a systematic and specified framework and structure and, depending on the King’s view, the civilian statesmen, staffs and police chiefs were different. The present article tries to analyze the way of implementation of censorship policy and the extent of penetration and interference of police department in this case through using descriptive and analytical method.


Introduction
From the beginning of constitutionalism in Iran, the press had not had a good condition.As many observers stated, the press had been experiencing its worst period in term of irregularity.The central government weakness and the events of World War I in Iran played vital role in this crisis.The state coup of 22 February of 1920 altered the situation.The attention to the press affairs was clearly obvious from the first state coup leaders' declarations.Reza Khan (the commander of army) had special attention to the press from the beginning of state coup to the end of his sovereignty.The existence of a space in which the concentration was on the individual benefits and the lack of attention to the national interests, the relationship of some presses to the foreigners' embassies and writing about their benefits had increased this attention.The general attitude Reza Khan had toward press was supporting the actions and programs of the government, explaining these to the people and moving in direction of the government's goals.Every criticism against the governmental officials was considered as a reaction to the individual benefits but not national interests so that the press had to put under careful scrutiny.Monitoring on the press application and their writings were carried out before Premiership at the instigation of Reza Khan himself and military ruler of the capital.With the beginning of premiership, this affair was given to the police department.Form the beginning, the head of police department exerted strenuous monitoring on presses.All presses opposing the government were censored or confined.The intensity of censorship affect the agreeing presses at the end of Reza Khan's Premiership.At the beginning of Pahlavi reign, legal affairs of presses such as censorship were given to Ministry of Education but in practice, it was under the scrutiny of police department.The growing and developing power of Teymoor Tash, the powerful minister of the court, transferred the general affairs of presses to him.Although the influence of other governmental officials was not ineffective in the censorship affairs.This influence continued to the end of Pahlavi sovereignty.The strictness of police department in this affair exempted some presses from censoring.The matter which was eliminated in the time of Ayrem's presidency on police department.The lack of content for the presses and the elimination of most of them were the consequences of censorship intensity in Ayrem's presidency.Mokhtar's presidency period on police department, with the establishment of Pars Agency, the censorship officers turned to the news interpretation.The intensity of this matter resulted in the construction of the offices for decreasing the censorship amount and the relative improvement of presses.Generally, all suppressing actions against the presses were mistakenly put under the shoulders of police department while other governmental officials were responsible for it.There has not been published a research which has the above mentioned title.In the conducted researches, with the general title, the censorship and the role of police department in censorship were not well explained.In the present study, the attempts have been made to show the way of intervening and the influence of police department in censorship through using remained newspapers, documents and memories of that time media master.Meanwhile, the view and the influence of other authorities to this matter were explained.

Reza Khan and Press
Although the police department heads and other authorities had their own views in relation to the press censorship, generally, police department heads followed the general rules and the king's order.According to the political construction of government and the tendency of king to authoritarian sovereignty, the press, similar to other governmental organizations, had to be compliant to him and had to move regarding his needs and wishes.Every type of criticism against the government and its reflection in presses were considered as the enmity and critics had to eliminate from the press area (Mard Emruz newspaper, No: 109, 5, 1947, 29, May).Dashti, the journalist and companion of Reza Khan, stated that his view about press was as following: Reza Khan hated the presses which were looking for their own benefits and personal motives.He believed in the correction and improvement of country and, in reply, he expected their support.The press did not have to follow other purposes except the interests related to the country.He hated the demagogy and obscenity of presses (Dashti, 101, 1976 and 99).Therefore, every sort of criticism against the goals and programs of the government was considered as a disagreement with the king and the critical presses were regarded as one of his main opponents.Therefore, in his view, the free press had no places.

Press Statuses before 1924
Most of observers of that era considered the unfavorable status of presses as the instability of councils of ministers and the insecurity of society and regarded the conflicts of different areas of the country and the capital as the created competition atmosphere.The establishment and start of fourth assembly had no effect on the improvement of press status.The internal and external factors understood the importance of press in the public opinion and tried to penetrate in this area in order to gain personal motives.(Modir Hallaj, 141, 1934;Ajir newspaper, 1, No. 6, 26, May, 1943).The unfavorable condition of press continued to the period of after the state coup and this provided dissatisfaction of libertarians and media masters.Farrokhi Yazdi, in editorial of Toofan under the pretext of journalism, pointed to the vulgarity of this profession and its triviality among people (Farrokhi, 307, 2000;Afshar, 115, 2000).Liberal person such as Aref Qazvini considered journalists as those who were void of knowledge and those who were belonging to the lowest class of people and he thanked Reza Khan for suppressing them.Elsewhere, he stated that he had never seen an honest pen (Aref, 248, 1999 and 277).The censorship and suppression of unbridled presses was unavoidable matter in that period of time.Reza Khan used the opportunity he had gained from the negative views the society had against the presses in the best way and he eliminated every sort of criticism with the establishment of censorship.His sensitivity to the press affairs, from the beginning of the state coup, was figured in the direction of providing social peace and the establishment of regulation and ethical affairs in presses so much that he considered the presses' inattention to ethical issues as an appliance for weakening the public peace and he considered that the nonconformity of this issue caused heavy punishment (Ayn al Saltaneh, volume 8, 6240, 2000).Reza Khan's commands on presses took place before premiership, by controlling the police department, with personal commands and by army forces.Legally, Reza Khan had no right of every type of intervening in press affairs and he had only the limited right of this in term of curfews.Therefore, threatening the press managers with breaking opponents' pens and cutting the critics' tongues and severely punishing the critics' managers was exerted extra-judicially.The confinement and the censorship of media, the punishment of mangers criticizing, exiling them were some parts of his actions for confronting them and suppressing the opposing presses (Dolat Abadi, volume 1361, 4, 282;Zaker Hussein, 2001, 86).According to the rules, the general affairs of presses were up to the Ministry of Education and the police department acted as the government executive officers in the press affairs.With the Reza Khan's premiership and monitoring the police department, the scrutiny over press affairs and the censorship of press was entrusted to the police department (Qasemi, 42, 1993).The task of Ministry of Education remained as investigating the legal stages of entrustment or confining the presses' legal privilege, in case of violation.However, shortly after sovereignty, the police department cooperated with Ministry of Education and somehow the authority of police department was complete in this matter (documents and national library organization of Iran, (SAKMA,.At the beginning of Reza Khan's premiership and before republicanism events, the presses were not censored and they were only confined if there were some issues against the governing class and they were allowed to republish shortly after the confinement.With the emergence of republicanism, this procedure changed fast and the censorship gained a specific position in the government of Reza Khan.In this period, Dargahi initiated to act against the censorship of presses in a new practice, different from the previous one, through which some of police officers, through night inspection of press offices, texts and verifying them, issued the publication permission.The police department censors, from the beginning, exerted strict procedure and if they confirmed the text, they allowed it to be published.The presses were allowed to publish the articles verified by the police department (Mohit, 334, 1995;Amidi Noori, 2002, volume 89, 1).
With the emergence of republicanism events, the censorship of opposing presses was strictly established.Moreover, the critics of the government and the republicanism, escaping from the censorship, secretly published their subjects, but were confined fast by the police department.The newspaper, Qarne Bistom managed by Eshqi, was confined fast due to the critical subjects written against the republicans and due to the sham plea.If the main reason of confinement was the escaping from the censorship (SAKMA,.Murdering Eshqi committed by the police department was another alarm to the consequence of escaping from the censorship and of writing the critical subjects against the government.Generally, the performance of censorship on newspaper subjects, depending on the types of goal and dictates of the time, was variable.In the republicanism events and the advent of disagreement, the censorship officers were responsible to censor every critical subject against the government because of the lack of awareness of the people, living in other cities, of the resistance of the people living in the capital.The religious statement of Shia scholars against the republicanism was censored in all minority newspapers (Khalesi, 2006(Khalesi, , 2007)).With the defeat of republicanism and the sensation intensity of its opponents, the position of government and police department changed from the strict procedure to the temporary indulgence.With reconsolidating of Reaza Khan, after the defeat of republicanism and the multilateral effort for changing sovereignty, the policy of press censorship faced strict actions.Every subject opposing Reza Khan and agreeing Qajar Court was censored.The minority media not only were censored but also were confined fast in a way that the minority newspapers were never published simultaneously.The domination of fearful environment on the press area resulted in the avoidance of every type of criticism.In order to deal with this problem and the dissection of censorship space intensity and to oppose Reza Khan, an article, titled the signature of opinions, was esoterically written by Bahar in the newspaper of Nasim Saba (Zaker Hussein, 99;Mostofi, 1998, volume 607, 3).To engage in controversy with the created environment, especially in the press area, results in the protestation of the minority deputations in the parliament and the encouragement of the protested managers of presses against the censorship intensity and the sanctuary in the parliament.Bahar, in his critical speech, stated some issues related to the police department and the press censorship of the minority and their confinement (the negotiation of fourth parliament, 2, August, 1924;Macci Modarres, 1979, volume 1: 459).The press censorship in the last months of changing monarchy included the agreed presses of government.The intensity of actions of police officers in this matter resulted in the protestation of managers supporting the government.Rahnama, the manager of Iran Newspaper wrote a letter to Reza Khan in which he protested against the procedure caused by the police department.The consequence of this protestation caused the premiership to write a letter to Dargahi, the head of police department, pointing out the purpose of censorship and beware the police officer of assigning strict procedure.This letter not only determined the intensity of censorship but also revealed the flattering procedure of police department in censoring presses.The action which was at title of actions done by the police department in the censorship matter until the end of Pahlavi Monarchy.Although Dargahi wrote a letter to premiership in which he did accept the intensity of censorship and considered all performed actions regarding the commands.With the command of premiership, it was laid down that the complains of press mangers supporting the government to the application of police officers of censorship would be investigated in the commission coagulated in the curfew to decrease the police officers' extortions (the institute of studies of contemporary history of Iran, document, 864-65n: 877-78)

The Censorship System at the Beginning of Monarchy
Monitoring the application of presses including censorship or confinement of the newspapers remained on the responsibility of the police department at the beginning of Pahlavi monarchy.This extrajudicial influence undoubtedly was taken effect by the king's command.In the period of Frooqi and Mostofi al Mamalek's premiership, they approximately had some influence on the police department in the press affairs.The press managers' complains of the police department's censorship was referred to them and the police department was responsible for the implementation of their commands (SAKMA,.This matter accompanied the lack of the firmness and stableness of dictatorship roots decreased the censorship intensity compared to the pre-monarchy.Some newspapers stated some criticism against the application of governmental officials and there were still some free and critical newspapers.Some important internal events such as opposing to the constriction rule was reflected in the newspapers and despite censorship, the news of strike was emitted all over the country (Ajires Newspaper, No. 113, 1943, February, 2;Kronin, 2006, 182;Etellaat, 1, No. 6, 1926, August, 13).Among these, Dashti and Farrokhi criticized more about the existed situation.Dashti's strongly worded article against the application of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officers faced the guarantor of there and discomfort of police department due to the lack of censorship.The translation of French novel, nightlife, which was published by Mohammad Masood in the footnote of Shafagh Sorkh, completely showed the criticism to the society of that time.The throughout critical newspaper of Toofan supported by the ministry of court was immune from the censorship though the deleagation of Farrokhi in the parliament was not ineffective (Golban, 172, 1985;Khamehie, 64, 2002).The existed situation of that time quickly changed, at the beginning of 1928, with the domination of the king on his relatives' movements and situations.The Farrokhi's critical writing exacerbated the situation.The Teymoor Tash's alarm to Farrokhi based on understanding that situation and abandoning the critical procedure was not effective.The publication of a critical article related to the journalism process in that time and an article in protest to the circumstance of the parliament elections resulted in the confinement of Toofan newspaper and the escape of Farrokhi from the country (Amidi Noori, 2002, volume 1, 148).The aforementioned actions encouraged police department to intensify the censorship process.The censorship officers such as Shamim, went to the press offices in order to examine the subjects and articles.Low scientific knowledge and information of officers and their fear of the superiors' reprimanding resulted in the censorship of unclear statements.In some cases, the whole of article was considered as unpublishable and no printer could not publish it if a red line was drawn on it.The performed actions in the censorship affairs caused another group of authors to leave the journalism area (the same, 122, Mosavi Zadeh, 1999, volume 2, 925).Sanaati Zadeh Kermani who published many subjects against the plunders and illegal actions of government officials of Kerman in his newspaper, with the beginning of the censorship intensification, he esoterically wrote in his latest issue of his newspaper "two weeks after the officers' monitoring of the newspaper and starting the censorship and suffocating the national emotions, we have broken our pens and will be the spectators" (Sanaati Zadeh, 319, 1967).

Teymoor Tash and Press
The authority of Teymoor Tash, accompanied the premiership of Mokhber al Saltaneh Hedayat, expanded in all civil affairs.This issue was not completely taken effect in the previous premierships due to some problems as he could not help Mohammad Ali Mokarram whose newspaper had been confined by the request of religious scholars and Mostofi al Mamalek's commands (Esmaili, 2001, 267).The existence of a few documents related to interference of Teymoor Tash in press showed the nonexistence of his influence at the beginning of monarchy.The unfavorable status of press, the severe strictness of police department in cencoring newspapers and the internal and external protest, especially the subsequent complains of Habl al Matin Newspaper to the censorship condition in Iran resulted in the reasons of entrusting the whole of presses to the Court.Kashani, the manager of Habl al Matin, repeatedly, in his own articles, considered the censorship of press in the peaceful condition of country against the government and the nation interests and regarded its performance as the cause of transgression of aggressors to the rights of nation and he asked the king and Teymoor Tash to dismiss the censorship from personal influence through approving the press rules and priciples (Habl al Matin, No. 7, 1928, November, 21).Due to existed problems, the king, in a meeting in which the press managers were invited, announced the performance of a general policy and the necessity of concentration and creation of a public policy in relation to the press.Meanwhile, in order to deal with the protestations against the censorship and eliminating the existence of police department from press affairs, several capital important newspapers whose managers had the press experiences and supported the government and its policies, giving the letters of commitment and following the rules were exempted from the censorship (Habl al Matin, No. 5, 37, 1928, January, 28).By taking the control and the privileges of general policies of press, Teymoor Tash became responsible for holding weekly meeting with the press managers, notifying the government general policies to them, solving the press shortcomings and barriers such as confinement, censorship or the establishment of press.The Teymoor Tash's actions decreased the strictness of police department in the censorship affair.Different presses faced more indulgence from his side.Most of confined presses were come out from the confinement although there was not established new rule for the press censorship in this period.With the court minister's actions, the manager of Habl al Matin, imagining the elimination of censorship and putting it in a legal framework, considered this event as the results of his own repeated complains (Habl al Matin, 37, No. 6, 1929, March, 31) but understanding the issue stated by the local reporters, in a critical article, he found that the cause of censorship was due to the press managers' fears of security police of police department (Habl al Matin, 37, No. 6, 1929, Avril, 1).The journalism status, despite the made corrections, generally had no noticeable changes.The censorship system still tightened the situation for most of journalists.The power of criticism was deprived from the majority and the articles were published without any commentary.The internal normal news were censored with specific and exact sensitivity.
As Habl al Matin demonstrated "newspapers stand empty in terms of internal news and are only the reporter of that king's arrival and departure and their coming back time.The remaining subjects are the translation of useless novels and foreign news".The other cities newspaper statuses were almost similar to those in the capital.Bahar, the manager of a newspaper in Mashahd, about this issue, stated that "I published the subjects of newspaper free from everything and void of any thought and opinion due to censoring and monitoring done by police headquarters" (Habl al Matin, No. 23, 37, 1929, June, 25;Bahar, 1998, 45).The traditional competition of bureaucrats and militaries, for achieving power, more continued in this era.With the decrease of the police department authorities in the press affairs, especially the censorship of some important newspapers, the head of police department had made some efforts to challenge the power of court ministry in the press area.The attempts made for censoring the presses which Teymoor Tash had commanded on their exemption from censoring and the creation of some faults in the abovementioned press affairs that sometime, due to the exemption from the censorship, few critical articles or the translation of foreign novels with criticism theme against the situation were done for influencing and confronting the Teymoor Tash's power.These actions were defeated by the command of the court ministry (Bahar, 46, 1998;Khamei, 1992, 64).Although the aforementioned newspapers were exempted from censorship, they were examined by the police department officers who were waiting to report their smallest faults to the king in order to decrease the Teymoor Tash's power.The king, strengthening his own power, sometimes enabled the head of police department to weaken the power of the court ministry.The censorship and the confinement of Ittelaat newspaper and the physical punishment of its manager by Dargahi in the middle of 1929 was done in this matter.According to the court ministry commitment, the abovementioned newspaper was free from censorship and the performance of this action was surely done with the king's approval so much that the Masoodi's letter to Teymoor Tash and then to the king is the confirmer of this issue (Habl Al Matin, No. 6, 1929, January, 7;Esmaeeili, 81, 2001).The censorship of some issues and articles of newspapers was beyond the scope of the legal power of police department.infact, the police department was responsible for doing it.The government policies and conditions of that period sometimes resulted in the censorship of some newspapers.Sometimes, this censorship seemed important for one of the ministries so much that in order to publish a true news in interest of the government, one of the ministries put the police department under the pressure and asked them to censor that newspaper that sometimes caused the censorship officer to commit suicide due to anxiousness (Kohestani, 1992, volume 1: 159;Habl al Matin, 37, No.1, 1928, November, 29: 10).In the other hand, the censorship of articles regarding the foreign affairs and its relationship to the state affairs was performed through the direct command of the court ministry to the police department.The censorship officers had the specific sensation to this issue.The important issues such the internal revolutions of Afghanistan and the Middle East fighting which could cause the consequences inside of the country were censored with more attention and accuracy and they could be only shown in the newspapers by presses with the allowance of the court ministry to the police department by mentioning the explicit news of those areas without any interpretation and explanation.Meanwhile, the newspaper articles did not have to cause other countries, especially the neighbors, to suffer (Habl al Matin, No. 9, 28, 1928.17.12.37;Esmaeeli, 75, 2001).The limited permissiveness to the censorship of presses was eliminated at the end of 1930, the beginning of the king's powerful monarchy.In this matter, the strictness of the police department censorship officers increased so much that they initiated to explain and interpret the subjects of newspapers.In this new method of censorship, the subjects did not have to be related to the king and all of government officials and the criticism against the situation in no way.This new method of censorship had continued to September of 1941.In addition to the censorship officers' reading of newspaper subjects and confirming them for the publication, they suddenly went to the newspaper offices at night for providing more pressure to the press workers and they reexamined the newspaper news ready for the publication (Mohit, 234, 1995).With the presidency of Ayram on the police department and the establishment of political police, the elimination of the court ministry influence and power in the press affairs gradually took place.The first Ayram's effort was to confront the newspapers exempted from the censorship.This action was an effort for challenging the court ministry power in the press area.Ayram's directive in 1931, April, 4 followed this issue.In this directive, the censorship exemption of the newspapers, approved by the court ministry was neglected.It seems that Ayram aimed at taking them under the control of the police department in case of inexistence of managers' complains.But the complaints of media managers exempted from the censorship and their complaints to the court ministry postponed the Ayram's intention to a future time.In that time, Teymoor Tash was regarded as the second power of the country and Ayram, in a letter to court ministry, making excuse for his rudeness, claimed that he was unaware of the exemption of aforementioned newspapers from the censorship.The executed actions for the censorship intensity caused the resignation of some media managers from the press area.The resignation of Dashti from the Shafagh Sork management right after this issue was not irrelevant to the aforementioned issues and the comprehension of the future censorship of his own newspaper (Ettelaat, No.1304, 1/1/5,2, 1931).In the middle of 1931, Ayram could almost shake the power foundations of Teymoor Tash in all areas, especially in press.The confinement of the old and important newspaper of Nasim Shomal due to the personal hostility, done by Ayram and his correspondence with premiership about this issue and in the condition in which Teymoor Tash was at the head of press, was done due to the use of power on press.(Koohestani, volume 2, 456).Ayram's efforts for dominating on press took place before Teymoor Tash's falling.When Hooshmand, the newspaper manager of Saadat Bashar, complained of the illegal abuses of Ayram and the censorship intensity to his newspaper due to the personal enmity to the court ministry, Teymoor Tash responded that "your mentioned subjects has no relation to the court ministry and you must refer to other government officials" (Esmaeili,170,201).With Teymoor Tash's falling, the press affairs was given to Ayrem.For a specific period of time, he followed the weekly meeting with the press managers as Teymoor Tash did.Frightening the press managers, he held one of the weekly meetings in prison and in order to make them scarier, he stated that he would prison Dashti in the soon future.He also exempted some specific newspapers of the court ministry from the censorship.From this point, the opinions of the police department officers and the views of government operators were more seen than before, in the censorship affairs and each sort of unfavorable subject mentioned by them would be censored (Ajir, 1, No.5, 1.11.13, 1943;Ayn al Saltaneh, 2001, volume 10, 7710;Parchm, 1, volume 148, 1, 1942, June, 17, 1).
With this way of censorship, the real meaning of newspaper was lost.The published news was featureless and often praised the king.The complaints of some press managers against the censorship condition caused the protestation in some private meeting.The expression of these dissatisfactions and Ayrem's abhorrent of presses and their managers resulted in Dashti, Rahnama, the press friends of Teymoor Tash including the manager of Nahid Newspaper imprisonment.Some of important newspapers such as Shafagh Sorkh were eliminated due to these issues and Iran newspaper manager was changed.(Khajeh Noori, 1978, 172;Toloie, 1994, volume 2, 768;Khameie, 64, 1992).

The Press Censorship in the Period of Police Department Presidency of Mokhtar
The censorship condition was more severe than the Ayram's.This issue had a direct relationship with the king's dictatorship intensity.The sycophancy of censorship officers and the interpretation of sentences and words at the time of censorship was unique in this period.The connection of each word or each type of sentence to the king while censoring had severe consequences for the authors.Writing an article about the life of Sweden artist who, despite anonymity, had been famous and rich and that every individual could be famous with the help of his/her own abilities and talents, was interpreted by the censorship officer as a sardonic subject to the king who despite anonymity had gained the power of country.The aforementioned author was prisoned for a period of time due to this excuse, the police department gerund frame-up and the communist aims (Motased, 2011, volume 2, 417).
In this period, similar to the previous periods, other government officials intervened in the press censorship.In 1936, one of the issued number of Peyman Journal was confined by the order of Foorughi, the premiership, due to the publication of subjects against the poem and poetry and the condition of its publication was stated as the censorship of abovementioned article.The scientific journal of Peyman was repeatedly censored due to the request of other government officials such as the Ministry of Education (Parcham, 1, 148, 1/4/28, 1942).
Most of sources and journalists of this era pointed to the censorship of subjects, which were out of illiterate censorship officers' understanding (Khameie, 18, 1983;Seyf Pour, 774, 1997).
The lack of content and the quantitative and qualitative poverty of presses and the secret protestation to the existed condition of censorship resulted in the irritation and indignation of the king from presses.In order to limit the role of police department in the censorship affair, to improve press affairs, to eliminate the reflection of censorship thought in the society, the correspondence guidance office was established in the state ministry with the presidency of Dashti.In the aforementioned office, the agents of ministry of education and the ministry of state cooperated with the police department officers in the press affairs.So, the press affairs were come out from the full power of the police department.The journalists had to take their articles to the correspondence guidance office for the investigation, the censorship and the permission to print.The office sent the acceptance letter response, sealed by permission stamp in all pages, to the mangers (Mohit, 1994, 234;Safaie, 1993, 2;Safari, 1991, 25;Halat, 2000, 56).
The establishment of this office could not eliminate the press problems including censorship.Although with the presentation of some famous journalists, the interpretation of words and sentences to some extent were analyzed and in case of censorship of words and sentences, appropriate phrases and sentences were replaced.Moreover, in the peek of strangulation period, no one was immune to himself.Dashti who was the most stubborn opposition of censorship and left the journalism area due to this issue did not dare to neglect the censorship affair in his own presidency due to being imprisoned and monitored in Ayrem's period.The difficulty of the situation and the fear other government officials' reports caused Faramarzi, Dashti's assistant, to face some problems (Halat, 1999, 57;Seyfi, 205, 1989.Generally, all officials of this office including the agents of State Ministry and Education Ministry followed the previous procedure of police department in the censorship of subjects and sometimes words and handled them with prejudice.The procedure of agent of police headquarters in this office was stricter than before.Every literary article was interpreted by them as having political subjects in order to show complaisance and sycophancy.The literary article of Hussein Adabi about the freedom of birds in the newspaper of Setareh Iran was interpreted to the bad intention of the author to a protestation to the Emad al Saltaneh Fatemi's arrest (safri, 1991, 96).Most of misunderstanding and the interpretation of articles and sentences of newspapers were related to the king and monarchy affairs.In these cases, most of authors face many problems and they rarely could release from its terrible consequences.An article describing the Eifel Tower was regarded, by the correspondence guidance office as an offensive article to the king.This issue surprised Mokhtar, the head of police headquarters so much that understanding the sycophancy of the censorship officer about this action, he allowed to it to be published by his own responsibility (Motazed, 2012, volume 1, 183).The censorship of articles was not unique to the internal authors.Giving permission to an American to enter into Iran in order to investigate the educational statues of Iranian students was subject to his article's censoring by the police department.Meanwhile, the request from a European, living in Iran for many years, to write an article about Iranians published in European journals resulted in the censorship of some critical parts done by censorship officers.The words of Tagor, the famous Indian philosopher, about the cruelty of kings, while visiting Iran, was not reflected in presses by police department officers (Haks, 230, 1990;Seyf Pour, 833, 1999).
The difficulty of censorship area expanded to the trivial announcements in the newspapers and the exact investigation of them.Sadr Hashemi, publishing his own announcement in order to get help from the press managers for his book's authorship absorbed the approval of censorship officers (Sadr Hashemi, 1984, volume 1, 30).
With the created atmosphere of censorship, most of the articles were not published or if published, it was incomplete.Some of the authors, escaping from the strictness of censorship officers of police department and the prevention from the incompleteness of their articles preferred to do more dangerous things.Abolghasem Halat explained one of his actions in his own diaries (Halat, 7, 2000-56).
With the establishment of the thought development institution in 1938, January, 11, monitoring on the press function and the determination their policies were entrusted to the press commission of this institution.
With the establishment of this institution, the censorship affairs were up to the police headquarters and only the investigation of the cause of confinement and the pursuit of the censorship affairs were done by the organization as with the censorship of Arya newspaper in Tabriz, the case was given to the commission for further investigation (Dolfani, 1996, 73).Accordingly, with the establishment of thought developing institution, there was no change in the police department operation and the correspondence guidance office regarding the press censorship.
The correspondence guidance office and the press commission of thought developing institution could not decrease the censorship problems.In October of 1940, Sediq Aalam established the advertisement and publication office with the king's command with the transfer of Pars News Agency from the Ministry of Foreign, the correspondence guidance office from the Ministry of State and the cultural affairs of thought developing office.Sediq Aalam announced the press freedom in the internal and external issues, decreed by the king, in the meetings with press mangers.Although apparently monitoring of this office on presses were remained stable until 10 September (Sediq, 1974, volume 3, 3;Masoodi, 17).Matin Daftari believed that this office was established due to the elimination of constraints the police headquarters had about the press and closing the censorship office of police headquarters which had been mistakenly named the correspondence guidance office (Safaee, 1993, 194).
The censorship foundations was so strong in the monarchy of first Pahlavi period and the managers were afraid of that office as after some months of the king's resignation of the monarchy, censorship was still done in some cities.

Conclusions
In the first Pahlavi era, according to its authoritarian king, the only responsibility of press was the complaisance and assistance to the government goals and programs.Every kind of criticism, even those done by the smallest governmental officials, was considered as the intervention in the state affairs and the disagreement with the whole government structure.Therefore, it tried to confine and censor the presses with the use of tool so called police department (police headquarters).Reza Khan, from the beginning of his own premiership, entrusted all press authorities and rights to the police department.Hereinafter, the press censorship was responsible for suppressing every sort of criticism and disagreement.The dominated atmosphere on the press was severely controlled by the police department.In case of every sort of criticism, the censorship officers did not allow it be published.The strictness intensity of the police department resulted in the press protestation against the government proponents and advocates.With the beginning of Pahlavi Monarchy, the press affairs, especially the censorship, were still up to the police department.Although it had complete authority, similar to the time before the monarchy.The premiership and the court ministry and other strong government officials played significant role in the press censorship and most of these censorships were done by their own intentions.Sometimes this issue was done out of police department office authorities, and the censorship of articles had to be done regarding the internal and external policies.In most cases, since the reason of censorship not done with the intention of the police department was not mentioned, the press manages censored regarded this issue as the police department actions and hated it more.With the stabilization of dictatorship foundations, this issue directly affected the censorship intensity.Some presses exempted from the censorship were again subject to its rules.The censorship intensity and the strictness of its performance resulted in the content shortage of presses and the abandonment of press area by some managers.The subject censorship extended to the words and sentence interpretation.In-between, the censorship officers of the police department, showing sycophancy and flattery, despite the performance of King's commands and orders, ascribed every sort of word or sentence to the authors' criticism against the king and the existed condition.Meanwhile they concentrated on the stance of other government officials in the censorship of articles and they did not allow them to publish their unfavorable subjects.The strictness intensity of police department and the opponents' protestation forced the king to decrease the influence of police department in censorship affairs.The establishment of correspondence guidance offices, the press commission of though development institution, and advertisement and publication offices were all provided due to the improvement of existed unfavorable environment created by the police department in the censorship affairs.None of aforementioned offices whose managers and the employers were chosen out of the police department staffs not only made any correction to the existed situation but also got ahead the strictness and the censorship of police department officials.