IRAN - Iran plans to exclude Western media from this year's press exhibition in Tehran in October, according to local news agencies.
"We will not allow the presence of those Western media which are vain, dishonest and beguiling and consider themselves as the ultimate media sultans of the world," deputy culture minister Mohammad-Ali Ramin said in a press conference carried by Fars news agency.
Only members of Western media outlets deemed “fitting and independent” will be allowed to attend the annual press exhibition, to be held 25 October. Ramin, who is in charge of the ministry’s media affairs, did not elaborate on this qualification.
Following Western coverage of the protests that took place after the presidential elections in June last year, foreign media in Iran are not allowed to directly cover news related to the opposition.
Earlier today, state-run Press TV denied reports in the Western press that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known as survived an attack on his convoy in western Iran, saying "no such attack had happened", and quoting officials as saying the confusion was caused by an exploding firework.
