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Iranian Press Mostly Quiet In Run-up to Election

The crackdown on the media which started five months before the election has effectively stifled critical press inside Iran.
Iranians sit next to electoral posters of Hassan Rohani (L) and Mohsen Rezai (C) in the religious city of Qom some 130 kilometres south of the capital on June 9, 2013. Iran elects on June 14 a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose eight years in office have been marked by stiff Western sanctions over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive and the economic turmoil they have caused. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI        (Photo credit should read BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

In the run-up to the June 14 presidential election in Iran, a critical approach from newspapers and websites is highly absent, even compared with previous election cycles.

The outcome of Iran’s presidential election in 2009 prompted public demonstrations in the capital, Tehran, and several major cities; the protests were of a size that were unprecedented since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In the aftermath of the election protests, security forces reacted excessively. Many people were detained, several were killed on the streets and in prison and the Green Movement leaders were put under house arrest. Several reformist journalists and political activists received long-term prison sentences.

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