Iran's judiciary arrests reformist journalist.
TEHRAN, July 14 — Iran's hardline judiciary on Monday arrested a reformist journalist, the latest in string of dissidents to be detained as a U.N. human rights official was due to visit the country.
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''The managing editor of banned Tavana weekly was summoned to the public prosecutor's office and later he was arrested,'' the ISNA student news agency said. The charges were not immediately clear.
Iran's Revolutionary Court banned the publication of pro-reform Tavana in 2000 for publishing articles which allegedly defamed officials of Iran's Islamic system.
Some 90 publications have been banned since then. One of the country's biggest surviving pro-reform newspapers, Hambastegi, received a temporary ban on Sunday for not publishing the name of its manager. Many newspapers shut down since 2000 remain closed as a result of temporary bans.
Last month, Iran's conservative judiciary arrested some 4,000 people in anti-clerical protests. Around 2,000 of those arrested have since been released, officials said.
The latest wave of arrests come as the U.N. Human Rights Commission's special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression is due to start a 10-day visit to Iran on Thursday.
Embattled reformist President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday ordered four ministers to investigate the death of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi who died after being arrested outside Tehran's Evin prison where many dissidents are held.
Analysts said Khatami's conservative rivals have intensified their crackdown on the independent press to finish off what was left of the president's promised reforms.
''They do not want any contact between the reformist camp and the people, so by closing papers they are trying to block the last channel,'' said an analyst who asked not to be named.
After briefly flourishing following Khatami's election in 1997, Iran's reformist newspapers have been fighting a losing battle to stay open after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded them ''bases of the enemy'' in early 2000.
Paris-based media body Reporters Without Borders earlier this month said nine journalists had been arrested in Iran since mid-June, bringing the number of journalists in jail at that time to 17.
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