Iran Shuts Down Newspapers

Iran has closed down another newspaper after a cartoon depicting the Azeri as cockroaches caused rioting. The report says the rioting took place in the northwest part of Iran. There has been quite a bit of unrest there as the Iranian Kurds also have been resisting there with help from Iraqi Kurds. The conflict between the Iran and the Kurds even resulted in reports of cross border incursions and shelling into Iraq by Iranian government forces.

Seattle PI : TEHRAN, Iran -- The government closed one of the country's top three newspapers Tuesday, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest.
State television reported that the Press Supervisory Body had closed the state-owned newspaper Iran "due to its publication of divisive and provocative materials."

The closure was indefinite, the television reported. It was the first time a newspaper had been banned since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office last year.

On Friday, the Farsi-language newspaper published a cartoon showing a cockroach speaking Azeri, the language of an ethnic group in northwestern IranÂ…

Â…Iran's conservative judiciary has closed more than 100 newspapers, mostly pro-reform, since 2000. Tuesday's closure, however, came from the Press Supervisory Body, not the judges.

ThatÂ’s and average of 20 newspapers closed per year since 2000. Iran, the international beacon of intellectual freedom and expression. Ha! More like an example of how to crush freedom with Islamic rule in ten years or less.

Posted by: Howie at 11:16 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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