Court closes Iran's last reformist daily

Hardliners chant praise for the supreme leader

The Iranian authorities have shut down the last of the country's major pro-reform newspapers.

The closure order on the daily, Bahar, was issued in Tehran by the Press Court, which monitors the media and said it had received numerous complaints against the paper.

The move is the latest in a campaign against the independent media by conservative-controlled authorities opposed to President Khatami's reform programmes.

The order came after Iran's most senior dissident cleric criticised the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for blocking moves in parliament to repeal draconian press restrictions.

Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri - once the designated successor of the late founder of Iran's Islamic republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, but who has fallen out of favour for criticising Ayatollah Khamenei - said Iran must be ruled by the elected parliament and president.

In an interview conducted by fax with the BBC, he said that the supreme leader should have only a supervisory role, and that despotism would result were he to overrule the parliament, or Majlis.

Demonstrations

Ayatollah Montazeri - under house arrest for three years - spoke after Ayatollah Khamenei ordered deputies not to discuss liberalising Iran's tough press laws.

Ayatollah Khamenei's intervention touched off scuffles in parliament, which is dominated by supporters of reformist President Mohammad Khatami.

It has also sparked demonstrations by hardliners who have been massing outside the Majlis to chant their support for Ayatollahi Khamenei and demand that pro-reform legislators be expelled.

Tensions

The courts have recently used powers granted by the restrictive press laws to close nearly all of the country's pro-reform publications and imprison several leading journalists.

Since President Khatami's 1997 election, the hardliners have lost considerable power - notably at elections in February when they were routed and lost control of the legislature for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

But they still retain control of the judiciary, the military and the broadcast media, and are backed by the supreme leader, whose ruling on all matters is final.