An Iranian newspaper failed to publish on Sunday amid media reports that it had been banned for an "insulting article" which its editor said had unintentionally offended Sunni Muslims. Iran, which is overwhelmingly Shi'ite Muslim, is wary of any move that could cause tension among its religious or ethnic minorities.
A state-owned newspaper was banned for five months last year for a cartoon deemed to insult Iran's ethnic Azeris. Iran's Press Supervisory Board banned the conservative daily Siyassat-e Rouz after it published "an insulting article", Iran's ISNA news agency said.
"They (the board) have announced that they have closed down the newspaper and the case will be followed in the court," the report said. The daily last published on Saturday. The report did not explain who had been insulted by the article, but comments by Siyassat-e Rouz editor-in-chief Mohammad Mehdi Shirmohammadi, carried by Iran's Fars News Agency, suggested it might have offended Sunnis, but not intentionally.
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