AFP reports:
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.
(Hat tip: Shriber)
