Iran says official permission urgent for Reuters

Reuters should get a permit from Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry to resume activity in Iran, IRNA quoted culture ministry official Mohammad-Nasser Haqiqat as saying.

"Despite the fact that Iran has lifted the ban on the activity of Reuters, it should get a written permit from the culture ministry to restart activity," he added.

A court in Iran lifted a ban on the activities of Reuters after the news agency reportedly paid a fine and issued a statement of apology.

In February 2012, Reuters released a video report with the headline "Thousands of female Ninjas train as Iran's assassins."

Later, Reuters acknowledged the report "contained an error" and the headline was corrected to read "Three thousand women Ninjas train in Iran."

Accordingly, Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry's foreign media department suspended temporarily all activities of the Reuters office in Tehran and revoked the press cards of Reuters' staff in the country.

The department said the martial arts practitioners were university students and housewives who practiced the sport because of their love for that sport.

According to Press TV, a number of Iranian students shown in the Reuters video clip had filed a lawsuit against the news agency over charges of defamation.


/Trend/