NCRI – The Iranian regime has threatened tough sanctions against any newspaper or media group that criticises the regime’s forthcoming election.
Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad Hosseini warned that branding the election a sham or publishing anything that encouraged a low turnout would be ‘against the country’s interests’.
He told a conference of the country’s cultural authorities: “We will deal with any newspaper or media that wants to harm the election, from the Keyhan daily and Iran newspaper to the Bahar or Sharq newspapers.
“We have had meetings with our media friends and emphasized the positive aspects of election activities but agreed we should also acknowledge the negative aspects.
“But we must prevent the media publishing material that results in a low turnout. We have had meetings with cultural general managers from across the country to focus their efforts on the widespread participation of people in the election.”
Hosseini stressed that on Sunday (June 2)foreign enemies wanted to undermine the credibility of the election, adding: “Foreigners are constantly looking for different ways to induce despair in our society.
“Recently Spiegel magazine wrote that the Iranian election is a hollow conference and that the result has already been determined and want this epic event. We must therefore use all the country’s capacities to encourage people to participate.
“To encourage more people to take part in the election, action must be taken, and one way to do this is answer any questions and doubts. We must clarify the doubts and questions in the society, including questions about election engineering.
“Some people have raised questions about election engineering or attacked the Guardian Council. We will deal with the media that contribute to these doubts no matter what institution or organization they belong to.”
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is responsible for censorship and restricting access to any media of which the Regime in Tehran does not approve.
