Hossein Bastani, editor of Rooz, a Hivos-funded project, refuses to pay staff's rights, accusing them of working with Islamic Republic to stifle free speech

What Rooz is doing to me in refusing to pay my rights and bringing someone else to continue the job, is similar to what Ahmadinejad's government did to the bus drivers on strike. It never acknowledged the drivers' rights, but replaced soldiers with the original drivers and accused the drivers of having political intentions behind their strike as a result of their overdue salaries.

Now it's quite disappointing that Rooz's publisher, Mr. Hossein Bastani, who himself has been an official employee of the Presidency office until a few years ago, preparing confidential news bulletins for them, is doing the same thing as the Islamic Republic.

He doesn't acknowledge my rights and in his personal emails to me call it "hostage taking" and "blackmailing," refuses to pay me my overdue salary for over a year of maintaining Rooz's website and all technical aspects of it, and even accuses me of having other intentions behind the demand for my rights. (In a new editorial, he compares my strike to the government's attempts to crack down on free speech.)

I have consulted and done web projects for a lot of clients with whom I have huge differences of opinios. From Radio Farda and Ettehad-e Jomhouri Khahan to governmental organizations in Iran (when I was still living in Iran) and religious institutes.

Rooz has the closest political viewpoints among the Persian media to my own point of view and the disturbing implications by Mr. Bastani that my intentions are similar to those who have shut down the reformist papers is very unfair.

I have voluntarily broken my strike since yesterday until the upcoming elections in Iran as to show that the problem is nothing political or self-serving, but a legitimate strike to obtain my rights.

As soon as Rooz and Iran Gooya, which is the French-registered entity that has received funding from Hivos, pays my overdue payments, I'm more than happy to continue working for a website I've put so much love, energy and time on.

I expect Hivos, the dutch foundation behind Rooz, to press publishers of Rooz to also show respect for other people's rights in action as well as in the words they write.