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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Guardian's Tehran correspondent expelled |
| 2008-01-06 |
| The Guardian's Tehran correspondent, Robert Tait, has been expelled from Iran without explanation after nearly three years of reporting from the country. Tait was forced to leave the country after the Iranian authorities declined to renew his visa and residence permit, despite an appeal on his behalf from the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, to Iran's culture and Islamic guidance ministry, which supervises the activities of all foreign and domestic media. He is now back in the UK, along with his Iranian wife. The ministry gave no reason for its decision but said the newspaper was free to propose another journalist as its correspondent in Iran. Tait, 43, was originally ordered to leave the country in March after officials expressed displeasure over his reporting. He was allowed to remain after the Guardian successfully appealed for his residence permit to be renewed. He is the second British journalist to be expelled from Iran in the past six months. Angus McDowall, a correspondent for the Independent, left last July after his documentation was not renewed. McDowall's expulsion was also unexplained but he had been detained after inadvertently entering a forbidden military zone during a driving holiday. Tait was the last British journalist working in Iran for an English language newspaper. Several other newspapers employ local English-speaking Iranians, often because of difficulties in obtaining resident press credentials for foreign nationals. |
| Posted by:Pappy |