Iran Shuts Down Newspaper Over Cartoon

Posted on May 24, 2006

N.Y. Times:

TEHRAN, May 23 — The government shut down one of its official newspapers on Tuesday for publishing a cartoon that mocked Iran’s Azeri minority and led to riots in northwestern cities.

The government Press Supervisory Board shut down the daily newspaper Iran because the cartoon was “divisive and provocative,” state television reported. The newspaper is published by the official IRNA news agency and is among the country’s most popular and influential newspapers.

The cartoon, published Friday, showed a boy repeating the Persian word for cockroach in different ways, while a cockroach in front of the boy asked “What?” in Turkish Azeri.

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