Iranian authorities ordered the closure of Iran’s ultra-conservative weekly magazine 9 Day after it criticized the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries, which was signed in Vienna on July 14.
According to BBC’s Persian Service, Iran’s Press Supervisory Board banned the weekly in early August because of its failure to comply with media law in Iran, which says that media "must obey and follow any instructions received from the Supreme National Security Council" and "avoid publishing defamation against Iranian authorities."
The weekly, which is published by the ultra-conservative parliamentarian Hamid Ressaei, has published many articles criticizing the Rouhani administration’s foreign policies and the nuclear talks.
"Each step Zarif took destroyed 100 kilos of reserves of enriched uranium,” one article stated. Other articles accused President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet of financial corruption, and insulted Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign policy advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
On July 22, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance issued detailed guidelines on how Iranian reporters should cover the nuclear deal. It forbids Iranian journalists from publishing any articles that suggest rifts among "high-ranking authorities in Iran", or reporting on anything that "indoctrinates" the public into believing that the nuclear deal goes "against the nation, Islam, or revolutionary values and ideals.”
This article was originally published on Journalism is not a Crime , a comprehensive database of jailed journalists in Iran.
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