The Iranian government is expelling the Tehran correspondent of the London-based Guardian newspaper, Dan De Luce, for making an unauthorized reporting visit to Bam after the earthquake there.
De Luce, who was due to fly to London yesterday, said on Wednesday: "I am disappointed to be leaving. I was just trying to do my job. I wrote the story from Bam because I thought it was important to document the situation there -- what the survivors and the aid agencies were saying."
De Luce, 38, an American passport-holder, has been the Guardian correspondent in Tehran since January 2003.
His predecessor, Geneive Abdo, fled Tehran in 2001. She was not expelled, but she expressed a fear of being prosecuted for an interview with a political prisoner.
The British ambassador to Tehran, Richard Dalton, made representations on behalf of De Luce to the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs.
The UK Foreign Office expressed disappointment at Iran's decision. "Legally, it is, of course, for the Iranian government to decide who they should allow in to their country," its spokesman said.
"But we think this act by Tehran sends the wrong messages about freedom of the press and about Iran's willingness to engage sensibly with the international community."
Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, expressed grave concern. "This can only set back our attempts to understand the fast-changing nature of Iranian society. We hope they will reconsider."
The Iranian government said the ban was for three months and that De Luce then could re-apply for a resident visa and press accreditation.
In a statement relayed through the embassy in London, the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, which is responsible for foreign journalists in Tehran, said: "Dan De Luce deliberately contravened the regulations.
"His professional activities have been suspended for three months and this is not because of what he wrote but because of contravention of the regulations."
The Iranian government estimated that about 26,000 people were killed in Bam, a city on the medieval Silk Road between Europe and China, by the earthquake on December 26.
De Luce was not in Iran at the time, but he visited Bam in February with Prince Charles. He then applied to the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance to make another visit to Bam, which had been temporarily closed to foreign journalists after an outbreak of violence.
He was denied permission to go to Bam to report.
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