TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran on Monday ordered the Fars news agency, one of the country's most prominent news organisations and normally considered close to the government, to close for three days for publishing "false news".
"We have received a letter from the commission for surveillance of non-governmental press agencies ordering us to halt our operations for three days," the agency's editor-in-chief Abbas Tavangar told AFP.
The official IRNA news agency reported that Fars had been "suspended for publishing false news and disturbing the public order."
No further details were given but Fars had on Sunday published a report saying that Iran's central bank governor Tahmasb Mazaheri was stepping down and being replaced by Vice President Parviz Davoudi.
It later issued another report denying the story.
Mazaheri and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are reported to be at loggerheads over Iran's monetary policy amid inflation rates of close to 25 percent. The central bank chief's future has been the centre of intense press speculation.
The conservative news website Borna said the story about Mazaheri was the reason for the temporary closure.
Tavangar said Fars would cease operations for three days with immediate effect. The last story on its news wire was at 11:30 am (0700 GMT) Monday.
Fars, which is known for its security contacts and regularly publishes interviews with top military commanders, is normally considered supportive of Ahmadinejad's government.
It is a relatively recent creation, founded in 2002, but rapidly became one of the most significant news organisations in Iran with a wide domestic network. The identity of its political and financial backers is not known.
The Iranian media scene, which contains a myriad of newspapers, Internet news sites and news agencies of all political colours, has been hit by a string of closures under Ahmadinejad.
The leading moderate daily Shargh (East) was shut down in August 2007 for publishing an interview with a well-known Iranian expatriate lesbian poet.
In July that year the authorities also closed the moderate labour news agency ILNA and the daily newspaper Ham Mihan, directed by former Tehran mayor Gholam Hossein Karbaschi.
But the closures have also hit more conservative outlets.
Baztab (Reflection) a conservative news website close to former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaie that had been critical of Ahmadinejad was shut down in September. But it rapidly relaunched under the new name Tabnak (Shining).
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