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Iran bans influential liberal weekly

Iran Materials 6 November 2008 23:44 (UTC +04:00)

Iran's official news agency says authorities have banned a prominent weekly for going beyond topics it was supposed to cover, the Associated Press reported.

IRNA's report Thursday quotes deputy culture minister Alireza Malekian as saying that the magazine - Sharvand-e Emrooz, or Today's Citizen - was banned because of a "discrepancy" between its content and "declared domain."

Malekian also says the magazine editors had ignored earlier warnings on the issue.

The weekly was licensed to cover cultural, social and economic topics and sports, But many of its articles were political.

With a 50,000-strong circulation, it was a welcome tribune for political figures opposed to the ruling hard-liners.

Iran's judiciary, controlled by hard-liners, has shut more than 100 newspapers since 2000.

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