Recount Offer Fails to Quell Political Tumult in Iran

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Recount Offer Fails to Quell Political Tumult in Iran

Alireza Sotakbar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a rally in Valiasr square in Tehran on Tuesday.

By NAZILA FATHI and SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: June 16, 2009


TEHRAN — Tens of thousands of Iranians gathered in the streets here on Tuesday for a second day of mass demonstrations protesting the official results of Friday’s presidential election, unsatisfied by a top government panel’s agreement to conduct a partial recount.

As the political tumult grew, the Iranian government instituted tough restrictions on foreign journalists, formally shutting down their ability to report on the unrest on the streets. Press credentials of journalists temporarily in the country to cover the election were revoked; journalists stationed in Iran were required to get explicit permission to report beyond the confines of their offices.

Reporters Without Borders said that security services had moved into some newspaper offices to censor content and that four pro-reform newspapers have been closed or prevented from criticizing the official election results.

The result was a dearth of initial photographs and video of Tuesday’s enormous opposition protest, which began on Valiasr Street, a major thoroughfare, and headed north. The tens of thousands of marchers — perhaps more — gathered without the help of text messaging or cell phone service, relying on word of mouth and internet social media platforms such as Twitter.

A senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, used the Internet to issue a public letter supporting the peaceful demonstrations and excoriating the government for “declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe.”

Ayatollah Montazeri, a relative liberal who has often criticized hard-liners, is one of a growing number of influential clerics questioning the election results.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/middleeast/17iran.html?hp