IRAN

Iran shuts down leading reformist newspaper

AFP/File – Iranian men read headlines of newspapers displayed at a newsstand in downtown Tehran, 2007. The Irna.

TEHRAN (AFP) – The Iranian press watchdog shut down leading reformist newspaper Kargozaran on Wednesday over publication of a piece criticising Palestinian militants, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Kargozaran has been banned over a media offence and the case has been referred to the court," Mohammad Parvizi, who is in charge of domestic media at the culture ministry, told IRNA.

He said the ban was ordered over "a piece yesterday which justifies the Zionist regime's crimes against humanity in Gaza and portrays the Palestinian resistance as terrorists who cause the deaths of children and civilians by taking up position in kindergartens and hospitals."

Kargozaran's director Morteza Sajadian confirmed the closure and said the piece in question was a statement by a radical pro-reform student group, the Office to Consolidate Unity.

"The statement was not supposed to be carried, it was mistakenly printed," he told AFP, hoping the ban would be only temporary.

Kargozaran's licence holder is the Executives of Construction, a political party close to former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The paper, which started publication three years ago, has been a frequent target of attack from rival hardline media over its content, which has been perceived as hostile to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Under Ahmadinejad, Iranian newspapers, websites and news agencies of all political persuasions have been hit by a string of closures.

Iran is a staunch supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza and does not recognise its archfoe Israel, which has been pounding the territory with a deadly air blitz for the past five days.

(This news from IRNA, Iran, January, 7,2009)