Iran shuts down newspaper just days after it published front page article linking supreme leader to poverty

Kelid newspaper published a front-page article titled ‘millions of Iranians living under poverty line’

File: Iran authorities shut down a daily newspaper after it ran a front-page graphic linking poverty to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (AP)

Iranian authorities banned a daily newspaper on Monday after it published a front-page graphic that allegedly showed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hand drawing the poverty line in the Islamic Republic.

On Saturday, daily newspaper Kelid published a front-page article titled “Millions of Iranians living under poverty line” on the country’s economic crisis, reported Associated Press (AP).

Iran’s economy has been in troubled waters since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The crisis deepened when former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

The resultant sanctions hurt the country’s ailing economy, which is now battling record breaking inflation. Its currency rial has also taken a battering and is now about 281,500 to the dollar — compared with 32,000 rials for $1 at the time when the 2015 nuclear deal was struck.

Iranians are also having to cut down on essentials like dairy and meat to cope with the crisis, reported AP.

The article in Kelid was accompanied by a graphic, just below the headline, which showed a person’s left hand holding a pen and drawing a red line across the page as silhouettes of people underneath are reaching up to the line.

Reports said that the hand in the graphic in the Kelid article resembled an earlier image of Mr Khamenei writing on a piece of paper with his left hand bearing a prominent ring on one of his fingers.

His right hand has been paralysed since a 1981 bombing.

On Monday, Iran’s semiofficial state news agency Mehr and state-run IRNA news agency both reported that the country’s Press Supervisory Board under the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance indefinitely revoked Kelid’s operating license.

However, they did not give any reason for the paper’s closure. The newspaper’s website has also been taken down.

Earlier, the Young Journalists Club, a group associated with state television, reported that the newspaper was being examined by authorities.

While Iran’s television and radio stations are state controlled, newspapers and magazines can be privately owned. This has made journalists prone to harassment and intimidation by authorities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement: “Truthful and open reporting about matters of daily life is of vital importance for the Iranian public,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.

“Iranian authorities must allow Kelid to resume operations immediately and cease any attempts to censor the media,” the statement added.