Iranian authorities on Monday shut down the Ghanoon newspaper, which has criticised the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the newspaper said in a statement on its website.
The move came days after President Hassan Rouhani called for greater freedom of expression in the media.
Ghanoon said it been shut by the judiciary after complaints made by the IRGC’s Department of Intelligence.
The paper has been accused of “libel and publishing falsehoods to create public anxiety,” according to its website. It did not specify which reports had upset the IRGC.
Ghanoon was temporarily banned in 2014 over a report about possible corruption charges against a former member of the IRGC after he was released on bail.
The newspaper also came under attack in January when it criticised the way the Guards handled the arrest of 10 American sailors in Iranian waters.
It wrote that the video which aired on the Islamic Republic’s state television showing US Navy personnel kneeling with their hands behind their heads was reminiscent of beheadings by Islamic State.
