Iran’s intelligence chief tells press to obey official line

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) dictated the Islamic Republic’s official stances regarding its nuclear activities to the country’s state-run press, according to a report on a government-owned Persian-language website.

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezhei chaired the briefing session, which was attended by the heads of Iran’s various news organisations and a member of the Supreme National Security Council, the body in charge of Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West, the website Aftab wrote. Aftab belongs to the allies of former President Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The report said that Mohseni-Ezhei cautioned the heads of the various news organisations against publishing “unofficial news” regarding Tehran’s controversial nuclear work.

He told the audience that certain news outlets were publishing articles not in line with the official position of the Islamic Republic and demanded that they take appropriate measures to avoid reoccurrences of such “errors”.