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Last update - 23:11 14/06/2009
Iran shuts Arab TV bureau amid election controversy
By DPA
Tags: Iran, Al-Arabiya, Israel News 

Amid continuing tension in the Iranian capital over Friday's elections, Iran's Ministry of Information on Sunday ordered the satellite television news channel al-Arabiya to close its Tehran bureau for a week, the channel reported.

Diya al-Nasseri, the network's Tehran correspondent, announced the ministry's decision on air on Sunday afternoon. He said authorities declined to give any justification for the order, but added that it had come after hours of negotiations over an al-Arabiya report the ministry wanted to see changed.

Shortly after al-Nasseri made his announcement on air, authorities called him again, Nabil Khatib, executive news manager at the channel said in comments published on al-Arabiya website.
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"Our correspondent just got a call after we announced the news inviting him for a meeting at the ministry tomorrow to discuss the situation. Until then he's banned from doing any work," Khatib said.


"Al-Arabiya is worried about being banned from the chance to cover an important country like Iran during an important event like the elections and afterwards without explaining the reason behind that decision," he said.

Later in the day, the station ran footage from Iranian state television of a Tehran rally in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Footage of the president's press conference aired on the channel Sunday afternoon was from a feed, a journalist at the station's headquarters in Dubai said.

Alongside the Qatari network al-Jazeera, the Dubai-based network is one of the two leading satellite news channels in the Middle East.

The bureau's closure came as police confirmed the arrest of 50 demonstrators and 10 "organizers" following clashes between riot police and supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi on Saturday night.

In remarks carried by Iran's official IRNA news agency, deputy police chief Ahmed Radan said more arrests would follow.

Photographs and videos from Tehran showed police beating protesters on Saturday, but a news embargo in the local media made details difficult to come by.

The demonstrators were protesting what they said were fraudulent results from Friday's presidential elections, which showed a landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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