“Dozens of violations” suddenly surface as a handy pretext for shutting the paper down following a satirical cartoon. From AP:
TEHERAN, Iran – Iran on Monday closed down a prominent reformist daily, the paper’s editor said, because of what journalists said was a cartoon dealing with the country”s controversial nuclear program.
The daily Shargh, or East, was the most prominent reformist daily opposed to the hard-line policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
We got a call from the Press Supervisory Board saying that we have no right to publish our newspaper as of today,” editor Mohammad Ghouchani told The Associated Press.
The Press Supervisory Board ordered the daily to be closed down for ‘dozens of violations,’ the official IRNA news agency reported.
The editor said he didn’t know why his paper had been closed down.
Ghouchani said the paper had heard of over 70 complaints against us but we are not yet aware of the nature of the complaints or the reasons behind them.”
But prominent reformist journalist Mashallah Shamolvaezin said the closure was ordered because of a cartoon the paper published last Thursday.
The cartoon showed a chess board with a horse and a donkey. The donkey”s mouth is open and there is some light around it. Journalists say judiciary officials apparently took the donkey as representing Iran in nuclear negotiations with the West.
[…]
Iran saw a wave of newspaper closures in past years amid a confrontation between reformers and hard-liners during the 1997-2005 tenure of reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
The hard-line judiciary shut more than 100 pro-reform newspapers and jailed dozens of editors and writers.