Berlin, Aug 1 (DPA) Iran plans to exclude Western media from this year’s press exhibition in Tehran, local news agencies reported Sunday.
‘The Western media will be excluded from this year’s press exhibition,’ Deputy Culture Minister Mohammad-Ali Ramin said in a press conference carried by Fars news agency.
‘We will not allow the presence of those Western media which are vain, dishonest and beguiling and consider themselves as the ultimate media sultans of the world,’ added Ramin, who is in charge of the ministry’s media affairs.
Exceptions would only be those Western media ‘which are fitting and independent,’ he said without elaborating.
The press exhibition is to be held Oct 25 in Tehran.
In previous years, several Western journalists availed themselves of the occasion to get a press visa and come to Iran for news coverage rather than attending the press exhibition itself.
Iran generally accuses the Western media of being influenced and manipulated by the US and Israel and following a hostile stance towards Iran.
Following the mass protests after the presidential elections in June last year, the foreign media in Iran is not allowed to directly cover news related to the opposition and de facto limited to work inside its bureaus.
Exceptions are programmes which are directly approved by the foreign press department of the culture ministry.
