Iranian President Hassan Rouhani promised greater media freedom. So, why are so many journalists in prison and the overall rights situation deteriorating?  One year after President Hassan Rouhani took office, on August 4, 2013, with a popular mandate to bring change, journalism and media freedoms are in a state of disarray.

Down a dirt road in a back corner of a vast Tehran sports complex, several dozen young men recently took part in tryouts for Iran’s national baseball team.  These ballplayers, some of them fasting for the holy month of Ramadan in the scorching July heat, are part of a small but growing number of Iranians taking up America’s pastime despite long odds.

Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations have signed a memorandum of understanding.  The two countries have agreed to expand collaboration in cultural heritage and tourism activities, he added.

While U.S. and Iranian negotiators labor to reach a long-term nuclear agreement, other Americans and Iranians are stepping up contacts in a new wave of people-to-people diplomacy. In recent months, three American religious delegations have visited Iran while the first group of female Iranian seminary students came to the United States. Sports exchanges are also on the rise again,spearheaded by American wrestlers who find far more numerous and passionate fans in Iran than in many countries, including the U.S.  

First secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Tehran Tomohiro Nakagaki said that his country is keen to hold another cultural week in Tehran in the near future.  He met with Niavaran Cultural Center Director Seyyed Abbas Sajjadi in Tehran, and his plan for holding the cultural week was discussed during the meeting, the center announced in a press release on Monday.

In a meeting between President of the Children's Cultural Center of Serbia Olivera Ježina and Iranian Cultural Attaché in Belgrade Mahmoud Shalouei, the two officials inked an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which is supposed to pave the ground for promotion of cultural relations.