Iran arrests two pro-reform journalists: report

The Iranian authorities have arrested two pro-reform journalists, the ILNA news agency said, one of whom has been critical recently of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The agency, which is close to the country’s reformists, did not say when Issa Saharkhiz and Ehsan Mazandarani were detained or on what charges.

Saharkhiz was released in 2013 after serving three years in prison for insulting Khamenei and publishing anti-regime propaganda.

He was head of media at the culture ministry under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who was in office from 1997 to 2005.

In recent months, he had criticised Khamenei and other senior figures in interviews with foreign media.

Mazandarani, who runs the reformist daily Farhikhtegan, was previously arrested in 2009 for acting against national security and contact with foreigners, at a time of protests against the re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.