Arash Aramesh

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Tuesday closed a major reformist newspaper in Iran, leaving only a few reformist publications remaining in the sea of state-run media. The Ministry said that Hayateno, the reformist newspaper, was banned because its permit to publish was granted for a newspaper that focused on economic issues. Hayateno, however, had become a political newspaper, the Ministry said.

The closure coincides with an announcement from officials running the state-owned media that television programs will become more religious. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Ezzatollah Zarghami to another five-year term as the head of Iran’s Radio and Television. After accepting another term as Iran’s Radio and Television chief, Zarghami pledged this past weekend to make Iranian networks more Islamic by limiting the types of music aired on programs and decreasing the amount of makeup worn by female hosts and actresses.

Zarghami, a staunch conservative, has come under attack by reformists for the networks’ bias news coverage heavily favoring the conservatives. Following the disputed June 12 election, Iran’s television networks did not air much of the protests. What was aired in the days after the demonstrations was misleading; only small crowds of vandals were shown destroying public sites, rather than the tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators who questioned the election results.

Television and radio networks are considered to be the most significant means of spreading propaganda by the Iranian government. Almost everyone, even in the rural areas, has access to radio and television programs. For years, moderate forces in Iran have been deprived of access to this medium.

Unable to appear on television programs, reformists have traditionally resorted to print media as their means of spreading ideas and news. The print media, however, has been a target of Iran’s conservative judiciary. Many newspapers have been closed since Ahmadinejad became president in 2005, and many journalists have been imprisoned. When reformist Mohammad Khatami was president, the judiciary closed hundred of publications, which the authorities said undermined the Islamic republic.