Iran suspends newspaper after critical coronavirus coverage
The newspaper had just published an interview that accused the government of covering up the scale of Iran's coronavirus outbreak.
Iran has shut down a Tehran-based business daily after it quoted an epidemiologist critical of the government’s handling of the pandemic, state news agency IRNA reported.
The economic daily Jahan-e Sanat published on Sunday an interview with a member of the country’s national coronavirus task force who accused the government of covering up the scale of the outbreak. Mohammadreza Mahboubfar told the paper the number of coronavirus case counts could be 20 times higher than reported.
“There was no transparent flow of information,” Mahboubfar said, according to Reuters. “The government only provided engineered figures … over concerns about [its impact] on the election and the commemorations of the revolution anniversary.”
Jahan-e Sanat’s managing editor, Mohammad Reza Saadi, told state-run IRNA on Monday that the newspaper had been temporarily suspended. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Iranian authorities to reverse their decision.
