Iran closes newspaper over offensive cartoon

The Iranian government today closed one of its own newspapers for publishing a cartoon deemed as insulting to the Azeri minority in north-western Iran.

State television reported that the national media supervisory body had closed the state-owned paper called Iran “due to its publication of divisive and provocative materials”.

The closure was indefinite, the television reported.

It was the first time a newspaper had been banned since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office last year.

On Friday, Iran published a cartoon showing a cockroach speaking Azeri, the language of an ethnic group in north-western Iran.

The cartoon provoked riots in Tabriz, the capital of Eastern Azerbijan province, yesterday.

Police fired tear-gas as rioters smashed windows of the local governor’s office.

Culture Minister Saffar Harrandi appeared on state television yesterday and apologised for the cartoon. He promised to punish the paper’s editor and cartoonist.

But Tabriz official Eshrat Shayegh said the apology came “at least one week” too late.

Azeris make up about a quarter of Iran’s 70 million people.

© Thomas Crosbie Media, 2006.