Iran sees 'creeping coup' in the press - report

TEHRAN, July 7 (Reuters) Iran's culture minister said today 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 labour movement figures.

Journalists say they have to tread increasingly carefully between a growing number of ''red lines'' to avoid closure.

Since 2000, Iran's Press Supervisory Board and judiciary have closed more than 100 publications. Many subsequently reopened, such as Ham Mihan which was first banned in 2000. Others relaunched under different names.

The activists and diplomats say the authorities may be cracking down on opposition partly because of rising international pressure on the country as a result of an escalating row with the West over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The West accuses Tehran of seeking to build atomic bombs and has backed efforts for a third round of UN sanctions to punish Iran for not stopping sensitive nuclear work. Iran says it will not stop and insists it work is legal and peaceful.

REUTERS SV PM2005