Iran bans weekly for provoking ethnic tension

TEHRAN, Mar 13 (Reuters) Iran has banned a weekly magazine in the northwestern city of Orumiyeh for provoking ethnic tension and acting against national security, news agencies said today.

''The letter by the Supervisory Board on the Press ordering the closure of Navid-e Azerbaijan was sent to us today,'' Mehran Tabrizi, the publisher of Navid-e Azerbaijan told the official IRNA news agency.

The Navid-e Azerbaijan weekly started publication eight years ago in the mainly Azeri province of western Azerbaijan. It was also distributed in Tehran.

The weekly magazine was closed for ''provoking ethnic feelings'' and ''encouraging people to act against national security'', the ISNA students' news agency said. But it did not give details of any specific reports in the newspaper.

The authorities are highly sensitive to the way the media cover ethnic issues in a country where slightly more than half of Iran's 69 million people are Persians and the rest are ethnic Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Baluchis and Lors.

In the mainly Arab province of Khuzestan, the heartland of Iran's oil industry, five people were killed during anti-government protests last April and 21 have been killed in three separate bomb attacks since then.

Tabrizi said the ban on his newspaper was a ''hasty'' decision.

''The ban on the publication means ignoring people's cultural and social demands,'' IRNA quoted him as saying.

Government officials could not be reached for comment.

Iran closed a daily newspaper and banned a planned women's publication in January in legal actions against the media since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August.

More than 100 publications have been banned in Iran since 2000 although many have re-opened under different names.

REUTERS PG RK2120