Kurdish newspaper closed down in Iran

A Kurdish language newspaper has been permanently closed down in Iran on the grounds that it received money from abroad, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported on April 18. The criminal court in Sanandaj, in Iran’s northwestern Kurdish region, asserted that it broke the law by selling copies across the border in the Kurdish part of Iraq.

The publication, Rouji Ha Lat, is one of the18 newspapers that have been suspended in Iran since the start of 2008.

Three of the newspaper’s journalists were fined 300,000 toumen ($475) and detained for a month before being freed on bail.

“It seems that any pretext will do in order to silence independent news media,” the press freedom organisation said. “The Iranian judicial system undermines its own credibility each time it hands down such absurd and iniquitous decisions.”

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