A/HRC/28/70 84. Iranian authorities continue to close publications deemed subversive by certain elements the political establishment. On 23 December 2014, the Roozan publication was closed by order of the Tehran Prosecutor; seemingly in relation to an article it had published marking the five-year anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.55 85. In August 2014, five privately-owned religious stations — Imam Hossein, Abolfazal Abass, Alghaem, Alzahra and Almehdi — were closed after being accused by the Intelligence Ministry of “working illegally for satellite TV stations based in the United States and Great Britain,” “provoking sectarian tension within Islam,” “showing a degrading image of Shi’ism” and “insulting the holy figures of Islam.” 86. On 12 January 2015, reformist weekly publication Setareh Sobh was closed after publishing an open letter by Parliamentarian Ali Motahari, in which he called for the trial of jailed opposition leaders Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mr. Mehdi Karoubi, along with Mousavi’s wife Ms. Zahra Rahnavard. The Tehran Media Court which ordered the closure claimed it that it did so to “prevent the occurrence of crime.” 87. On 17 January 2015, reformist daily Mardom Emroz was closed, following its frontpage publication of an image of actor George Clooney wearing an “I am Charlie Hebdo” lapel pin. 88. On 3 February 2015, a Tehran Culture and Media Court ordered the closure of the online publication HMA (“Supporters of [Former President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad”). The Court who ordered the closure claimed that it was “to prevent the occurrence of a crime.” 89. Around 27 February 2015, authorities ordered the blocking of the Bahar website (which had previously been closed and re-opened) along with the Jamaran site (an official website of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini).56 3. Censorship / access to information 90. Authorities continue to censor or ban many forms of cultural and artistic expression. For example, in December 2014, apparently under pressure by the Parliament’s Cultural Commission, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance banned the film “Paternal House” by director Kianioush Ayyari.57 91. In November, the Working Group on Determining Instances of Criminal Content confirmed that the Information and Technology Ministry would continue to filter access to some data on Instagram.58 In December, FarsNews reported that “immoral” pages on Instagram had been blocked.59 In January 2015 it reported that authorities were attempting to block access to Whatsapp and Tango, in additional to sites similar to Facebook, which are already blocked.60 92. On 26 January 2015, a Contents Working Group was established by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and Culture, in order to, inter alia, monitor SMS messages.61 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 Ibid. Ibid. http://www.entekhab.ir/fa/news/183188. ptth://ansi.ai/ai/swen/93082010296/‫مهلت‬-‫دوماهه‬-‫به‬-‫وزارت‬-‫ارتباطات‬-‫برای‬-‫ کنترل‬. http://www.radiofarda.com/content/f2-iran-instagram-immoral-pages-filtered-censorship-cultureministry/26760241.html. http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13931017001370. dolat.ir/nsite/fullstory/news/?serv=12&id=257927. 39