Once the Islamic republic’s biggest cultural event, the Tehran International Book Fair – now in its 26th year — has wilted under President Mahmood Ahmadinejad’s hardline government. Raha Zahedpour reports on the recession in Iran’s publishing industry.
Staff at the BBC’s Persian Service face satellite jamming, smear campaigns and intimidation, says World Service Director Peter Horrocks
(more…)
Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti was allegedly tortured to death in a prison in Tehran on Thursday (8 November). Beheshti, 35 was arrested on 28 October by Iranian police on charges of “actions against national security on social networks and Facebook.” The human rights defender had received death threats as a result of his anti-government blog and had reportedly filed a complaint about torture during his time in the detention facility. His family say they were told by police to pick up his body on Wednesday and have been prevented from visiting his grave, with the exception of his brother-in-law. France and Britain have called on Tehran to investigate.
An Iranian court on Sunday convicted the Tehran bureau chief of the Thomson Reuters news agency of “propaganda-related offences” for a video that briefly described a group of women involved in martial arts training as killers. Parisa Hafezi was found guilty of “spreading lies” against the Islamic system for the February video, which initially carried a headline saying that the women were training as ninja “assassins.” A sentence by the court is expected within a week.