Guardian journalist expelled from Iran

Guardian ^ | January 4, 2008

[nuconvert]

Guardian journalist expelled from Iran

Guardian Unlimited

January 4 2008

The Guardian's Tehran correspondent, Robert Tait, has been expelled from Iran without explanation after nearly three years of reporting from the country.

Tait was forced to leave the country after the Iranian authorities declined to renew his visa and residence permit, despite an appeal on his behalf from the Guardian's editor,

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He is now back in the UK, along with his Iranian wife.

The ministry gave no reason for its decision but said the newspaper was free to put forward another journalist as its correspondent in Iran.

Tait, 43, was originally ordered to leave the country last March after officials expressed displeasure over his reporting. He was subsequently allowed to remain after the Guardian successfully appealed for his residence permit to be renewed.

He is the second British journalist to be expelled from Iran in the past six months. Angus McDowall, a correspondent for the Independent, left Iran in July after his documentation was not renewed. McDowall's expulsion was also unexplained but he had earlier been detained after inadvertently entering a military zone during a driving holiday.

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Two previous Guardian correspondents were also expelled from Iran. Geneive Abdo left in 2001 and was later told she would not be allowed to return following an unauthorised interview with Akbar Ganji, a dissident activist then being held in Tehran's Evin prison. Dan De Luce was expelled in 2004 after reporting from the earthquake-damaged city of Bam without official permission.

[Parley Baer]

Looks like a little red on red spat.

[Marine_Uncle]

He should be glad they did not throw him into some dark hole in the ground for a few years.

[Godwin1]

Something stinks here. The Guardian has consistently shilled for Islamist terrorists. Just as,a generation ago, it shilled for communist totalitarianism (today such pro-communist shilling is limited to Cuba.) Has this guy really done something to anger the Tehran terror-masters? Or is this a disinformation put-up job, designed to restore some of the Guardian's pathetic credibility?