Iran Slams Door On Foreign Journalists

[struggle4progress]

Regime's news crackdown may stymie future coverage, say observers
By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/24/2009 1:11:31 PM MT

The media crackdown in Iran may be just beginning. The totalitarian regime's banishment on foreign reporters covering the massive post-election unrest in Tehran and elsewhere will reverberate long after the green-clad protesters finally disappear from the streets, journalists predict.

"I think it's going to be very difficult to get back into Iran," says Richard Engel, chief foreign correspondent for NBC News. "We're openly being called the instigators of a revolt."

The theocratic government has been vocal in its criticism of the foreign media. State television is now running "confessions" from demonstrators who say they have been influenced to act immorally because of news reports.

"That's the message they are trying to put out; that foreign media are fanning the flames and leading people astray," Engel says ...

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/295695-Iran_Slams_Door_On_Foreign_Journalists.php