Iran Bans Newspaper Ham-Mihan Over Protest Coverage

Domestic Iranian news outlets reported on Monday, January 19, that the newspaper Ham-Mihan has been banned by order of the Press Supervisory Board.

Khabar Online published the report, quoting the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Mohammad-Javad Rouh.

According to the report, the suspension was issued directly by the Press Supervisory Board.

Two specific pieces of content were cited as the reasons for the ban: an editorial by the editor-in-chief titled “From January 1979 to January 2026” (published on Thursday, Jan 15) and an article titled “When the Sanctity of Medical Care Was Broken” by Elaheh Mohammadi (published on Wednesday, Jan 7), which examined “the incidents at hospitals from Ilam to Sina.”

During the January 2026 protests, security forces from the Islamic Republic raided at least two hospitals in Ilam and Tehran, with images of the raids later circulating in the media.

According to medical staff, after the internet was shut down on the evening of Thursday, January 8, security forces raided several more hospitals and made a number of arrests.

IranWire had earlier reported that security forces in Isfahan had arrested at least one physician.

The news of Ham-Mihan’s closure comes after the paper used its final issues to cover the January protests and the suffering of families whose loved ones were taken to the Kahrizak forensic medical center.

Ham-Mihan’s coverage also highlighted the high number of injured individuals in various cities, including Mashhad, Izeh, and Ramhormoz.

According to Ham-Mihan, the recent protests spread to at least 100 cities across Iran before the nationwide internet and telecom blackout.

These reports also noted that the total number of dead and injured remains unclear.

Ham-Mihan had already been under security pressure before the January 2026 protests. In November 2025, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, the paper’s license holder, told Eco Iran that the IRGC Intelligence Organization had pressured the newspaper, including by summoning and threatening its journalists.

It appears that the current security climate and the ongoing crackdown by the Islamic Republic are now hitting the media harder than before.