Seizure of a Reformist Newspaper After Publication of Image of Mir Hossein Mousavi

The editor-in-chief of the reformist newspaper "Mostaghel" published in Tehran has reported that the newspaper has been seized due to the publication of an image of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the last Prime Minister of Iran and a leader of the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election. Ali Nazari stated on Saturday, October 7, in an interview with ILNA that following the publication of Mousavi's photo in the Wednesday issue of the newspaper, "we were informed by the prosecutor's office that we should not publish the newspaper until further notice." On Wednesday, October 4, Mostaghel published an analysis titled "The Presidential System Must Be Preserved" in response to reports about attempts to change Iran's presidential system to a parliamentary system, which included photos of five prime ministers of Iran since the 1979 revolution. In this regard, Mr. Nazari informed ILNA that "on Saturday we attended the Culture and Media Court, but we were not given a written ruling and were only told that we currently do not have permission to publish." He emphasized that "from our perspective, we have not committed any crime and have not violated any laws," expressing hope that the publication of this newspaper would resume. In addition to ILNA, other news sources in Iran have published their reports on the seizure of the "Mostaghel" newspaper based on the editor's interview with Ensaf News. Visiting the Mostaghel website also shows that since the publication of Mir Hossein Mousavi's image in the newspaper, no other issue has been posted on the newspaper's website, and the Mostaghel newspaper has effectively not been published on Thursday, October 5. The Mostaghel newspaper started its operations on February 19, 2017, under the management of Fariba Abbasi and the editorship of Ali Nazari, and introduces itself as a newspaper "with a reformist policy and a supportive approach to the government." Ali Nazari is a reformist activist who represented Arak in the sixth parliament and before the publication of Mostaghel, he was the editor of the weekly Paytakht-e Kohan since August 2014, which was also published under the management of Fariba Abbasi. In this context, the criticism of Rouhani's legal deputy regarding "dual treatment of the press and media inequality"; the Speaker of Parliament: media should not be allowed to be easily shut down; the Law newspaper was lifted from suspension by the criminal court ruling; Reporters Without Borders: election candidates should commit to improving the information situation; the jury of the Yalestarat publication deemed it "guilty but deserving of leniency".