Iranske myndigheter ser tegn til en undergravende journalistikk, som vil ha regimeskifte og varsler motstand. En rekke publikasjoner er stengt.

Iranske myndigheter bruker uttrykk som «myk revolusjon» om undergravingen. De frykter at USA vil finansiere opposisjonen.

Iran’s culture minister said on Saturday there were signs of a «creeping coup» in the Iranian press that involved individual journalists, a news agency said, four days after a daily critical of the government was banned.

Ham Mihan, a pro-reform newspaper that published in May, was shut by the authorities on Tuesday over a legal technicality. Critics saw the move as part of a broader squeeze on dissenting voices such as students, intellectuals and rights activists.

The government dismisses such charges, saying it allows free speech. Nevertheless, officials have spoken of a so-called «soft revolution,» a perceived U.S. effort to use intellectuals and others to undermine the Islamic Republic’s system of government.

«There are some signs of a creeping coup in the press,» said Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi, whose Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry oversees press activities, Iran’s student news agency ISNA reported.

«When we say a creeping coup in the press, it means a person is moving within a framework of an action to overthrow (the system),» Saffar-Harandi said.

Activists and Western diplomats say the authorities have become increasingly intolerant of dissent, turning the screws on pro-reform students, campaigners on women’s issues and labor movement figures.

Iran sees «creeping coup» in the press: report