AFP reporter in Iran arrested during protests

Nov 5, 2009, 7:38 GMT

   Tehran - An Iranian reporter working for the Agence France Presse news agency was arrested during anti-government protests, the AFP office in Tehran said Thursday.

   Its bureau chief, Jay Deshmukh, said Farhad Pouladi was arrested by security agents while covering Wednesday's demonstrations in Tehran.

   The AFP office and Pouladi's family have had no information about his whereabouts.

   Pouladi has a press card from the foreign press department of the Iranian Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, but since mid-June, the department has prohibited all foreign media from directly covering protests or making contact with opposition figures.

   On Wednesday, journalists, photographers and television crews were only allowed to cover a state-organized, anti-US rally in front of the former American embassy but not opposition protests held a few hundred metres away.

   Thousands of opposition supporters again rallied on Tehran's streets Wednesday to protest against the administration of President Mahamoud Ahmadinejad.

   The opposition and its supporters accused Ahmadinejad of fraud in the June 12 presidential election and do not acknowledge his re-election.

   More than 10 people were reportedly arrested in the latest protests. There was, however, no official confirmation of the arrests.

   The Iranian administration has branded the opposition as foreign agents with a mission to undermine and eventually topple the ruling Islamic establishment.