Iran: Reformist paper shut down
CNN
18-Aug-2009

An investigating judge said the popular newspaper, Etemad-e Melli,was ordered closed for what has been described as "publishing unlawfuland criminal material," state-run Press TV reported.

Protesters outside the newspaper offices clashed with police Monday, the network also reported.

On Sunday Masih Alinejad, a reporter and columnist with the paper, told CNN that officers from Iran's judiciary confronted employees of Etemad-e Melli after hours as they were getting the Monday's edition to print.

She and Karrubi's son, Hossein, said the newspaper had planned to run a firm response from Mehdi_Karrubi to his opponents, who have dismissed the allegations of detainee rapes.

The officials told the employees that they "were not allowed to come to the newspaper tomorrow," Alinejad, who is temporarily in the United States for a reporting assignment, told CNN.

In a statement on Saham News, the official Web site of his father's party, Etemad-e Melli, or the National Trust party, Hossein Karrubi said that the paper was forced to temporarily shut down.

He cited the pending publication of his father's response to "the insults" recently hurled at him for the shutdown.

Early Monday, Etemad-e Melli's Web site was still up with a report about a ban on the newspaper.

It was not printed, and its offices were closed, Alinejad said.

Hardliners have criticized Karrubi for openly describing the m... >>>

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