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Politics

Newspaper Banned for Criticizing Iran’s Protest Crackdown

November 21, 2022
Akhtar Safi
1 min read
The offending article, by Sadegh Zibakalam, an outspoken academic, had voiced criticism of the government’s crackdown on the recent nationwide protests
The offending article, by Sadegh Zibakalam, an outspoken academic, had voiced criticism of the government’s crackdown on the recent nationwide protests

Iranian authorities have shut down a newspaper that published an op-ed by a University of Tehran professor, and banned another reporter from practicing their profession, in a continued crackdown against media workers. The offending article, by Sadegh Zibakalam, an outspoken academic, had voiced criticism of the government’s crackdown on the recent nationwide protests.

Mizan news agency, affiliated with the hardline judiciary, announced that Jahan Sanat newspaper had been closed and that its case was sent to the judicial authorities for “violating the National Security Council's approved laws.”

Over the weekend, the newspaper had also published a story about a 9-year-old boy who was shot and killed during a protest in the southern city of Izeh last Wednesday. 

Mustafa Jafari, meanwhile, head of the Iranian Labor News Agency’s provincial office in Qazvin and director of the Qazvin Titar news website, was banned on Monday from working as a journalist for six months. 

At least 46 journalists have been jailed in Iran since the start of protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa, in the custody of Tehran’s morality police, has triggered a wave of nationwide demonstrations against Iran’s clerical establishment.

Security services have unleashed a fierce crackdown in which at least 378 people have been killed, including 47 children, according to one human rights organization. 

Several thousand people have been arrested and five people have so far been sentenced to death. 

There have been internet blackouts across Iran, restrictions on what Iranians can search for online, and interference in social media activity since the protests began. 

Journalists have been prevented from doing their jobs by their own editors as well as regime officials.

Fresh demonstrations were held across the country over the weekend despite the ongoing crackdown against protesters.

University students, teenagers and shopkeepers all demonstrated, and businesses were closed, in support of the uprising.

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