In September, a court ordered the reformist Iranian...

In September, a court ordered the reformist Iranian newspaper Neshat to stop publishing because it had run articles seen as questioning a central principle of Islamic justice and challenging the authority of Iran's supreme clerical leader and, in particular, had urged the abolition of the death penalty, prompting criticism from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said questioning such a fundamental principle was akin to apostasy, punishable by death. On September 6, editors of Neshat vowed to fight the ban and announced plans for a new newspaper.