Iran expels AFP journalist
AFP / AFP
11-Mar-2011 (one comment)


TEHRAN — Iranian authorities expelled Agence France-Presse deputy bureau chief in Tehran Jay Deshmukh on Friday without giving any official explanation for their decision.

Deshmukh, a 40-year-old Indian national who had been in the country since January 2009, was stripped of his press card along with 10 other correspondents on February 15, a day after a major Tehran protest.

The demonstration was the most significant one in the Iranian capital in a year and was covered by AFP and most of the international media.

AFP chief executive Emmanuel Hoog lodged an official protest with the Iranian authorities, in Tehran and Paris.

"Jay Desmukh, in common with the whole of the Tehran bureau, does a great job and with a professionalism that is universally recognised," he said.

"Thus to attack this journalist and AFP, as the Iran authorities have done, is totally unjust and unjustifiable," he added.

"AFP is dedicated to providing rigorous and balanced coverage of events in Iran as it does everywhere."

The French foreign ministry deplored the expulsion.

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Bavafa

IRI is imposing self sanction

by Bavafa on Sat Mar 12, 2011 09:28 AM PST

The world press ought to grant their wish and provide no (zero) platform for their propaganda machine. Or at the minimum make it conditional based on allowing their reporters to report freely in Iran.

Mehrdad


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