Iran Shuts Top Reformist Paper, Citing Cartoon Seen as an Insult
NY Times ^ | 09-12-06 | NAZILA FATHI
nytimes.com
TEHRAN, Sept. 11 — Iran’s conservative press watchdog shut down four publications on Monday, including a major reformist newspaper.
The reformist daily, called Shargh, or East, was shut down indefinitely because the newspaper had refused to replace its director and because it published a cartoon in a recent edition that was considered insulting to the government, state-run television said, citing a statement from the press monitoring agency.
“Shargh was banned and referred to the court because of its frequent violations and refusing to make amends in the past month, especially an insulting cartoon in a recent edition,” the statement said.
The statement said that the press agency had issued 70 warnings to the popular newspaper, which has a circulation of 100,000, and had ordered it to replace its managing director, which it had not done.
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