[2] A recipient of the 2000 CPJ International Press Freedom Award, Shamsolvaezin has been imprisoned multiple times for his journalistic activities.

It served as a platform for spirited debate among intellectuals, and published work by the leading Iranian thinker Abdulkarim Soroush.

On the importance of Kayhan, Forough Jahanbakhsh wrote: "The journal Kiyan [sic]... can be credited for its seminal role in fostering the growth of the religious intellectual discourse of post-revolutionary Iran.

Judge Saeed Mortazavi, head of the press court, claimed that Kiyan had "published lies, disturbed public opinion and insulted sacred law.

Another issue in June quoted in its headline an announcement made by Khatami to a gathering of Revolutionary Guards: "Society cannot be moved forward by instilling fear.

Shamsolvaezin and Hamid Reza Jalaeipour, the director of the publishing company for Jame'eh, were jailed without charges for thirty-five days.

[8] All of Shamsolvaezin's journals published articles written by authors with a wide spectrum of political opinions, including conservatives as well as exiled dissidents and reformists.

In April 2000, he was sentenced to 30 months in jail for "insulting Islamic principles," for publishing an article critical of capital punishment in Iran as editor of Neshat.

He was released on a bail of 2 billion rials (about $80,000), secured on the deed to his mother's home, and banned from foreign travel.