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| Axis of Evil |
| Paper banned a week after it goes nationwide |
| 2002-08-08 |
| A newspaper was banned Thursday a week after converted from being a provincial weekly to a national daily, and its reformist MP publisher is to face trial, IRNA said. Ayene-Jonoub (Mirror of the South), published by Mohammad Dadfar, was formerly published once a week in the southern Bushehr province. It was launched nationwide as a daily on August 1. "The head of the newspaper is facing 14 charges that were not specified," an employee of Ayene-Jonoub said, requesting anonymity. The judge responsible for the case, Saeed Mortazavi, said one of the reasons for suspending the paper was the previous sentencing of Dadfar for "anti-regime propaganda" in Tehran's appeals court. Legal sources said Dadfar had been sentenced to three months in prison for that offense. Dadfar, from the southern coastal city of Bushehr, is a member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, which holds a majority in parliament and is close to President Mohammed Khatami. They keep trying to whack 'em as soon as they spring up, but they keep springing up... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |