Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance for Press and Information Affairs, Ali-Reza Melkian, on Monday confirmed a report on banning of a Persian-language newspaper and said it was shut down for interviewing an "anti-revolutionary figure."
The morning daily, Sharq (East), was banned Monday morning for the second time in less than a year. "The main reason for banning Sharq is its interview with an anti- revolutionary figure who is known for promoting immoral issues," Melkian said. According to press reports, the interview was conducted with expatriate poet Saghi Ghahreman. The "Kayhan" newspaper described Ghahreman as the head of an "Iranian homosexual organization."
The Press Supervisory Board has ordered the ban as it found the interview, published on page 18 of the paper's Saturday's issue, as "promoter of immoral issues which are against the public decency," Melkian explained, according to IRNA.
He added the interviewee was "one of the known elements promoting immoral issues in its website, Cheragh (the Lamp)."
Melkian said that any closure or other decisions about the paper should be made by court.
Sharq removed the interview from its website Saturday afternoon and tried to make up for it by publishing a "note of apology" in its Sunday and Monday issues.
The paper said in the "note of apology," that it knew nothing about the immoral records of the interviewee. The paper was closed down for the first time in September 2006 for publishing an insulting cartoon on its last page.
