Iran Slammed for Expelling Guardian Reporter
May 20, 2004
Reuters
reuters.co.uk
PARIS -- Iran's expulsion of the only U.S. journalist based in Tehran is a new sign that it does not readily accept criticism, says a press freedom group.
Iran ordered out Dan de Luce, a reporter for the Guardian, because he reported the aftermath of the Bam earthquake without permission, the daily said.
De Luce had published a dispatch last month critical of the reconstruction effort in Bam following last year's earthquake which killed more than 20,000 people. Iranian authorities said he would be allowed to reapply for a visa in three months.
"This decision is an obstacle to the freedom of the press and shows once again that the Iranian authorities react badly to criticism," Robert Menard, the secretary-general of Paris-based Reporters Without Frontiers, said in a statement.
De Luce had travelled to Bam as an aid volunteer, after being denied a permit to make the trip as a journalist.
The Iranian Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance said in a statement de Luce had deliberately contravened regulations and that was why his permission to work had been revoked for three months.
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"that was why his permission to work had been revoked for three months."
Regime planning something over the next 3 months? Or don't want coverage of the annual demonstrations? Let's see if they start expelling other journalists....and how many of their own end up in jail this summer.