As idealistic it is to think of freedom of the press as a right, the truth is that journalism is rather restricting - and this is made even clearer with the attack on French Magazine Charlie Hebdo last week.
Reuters said that the attack that killed twelve people last January 7 was carried out in retaliation for caricatures of the Islam prophet, Mohammad. Later, thousands of hardline Islamists gathered outside the French embassy to denounce the drawing when Charlie Hebdo published another satirical cartoon about the prophet after the shooting.
A judge in Iran banned the local paper, Mardom e-Emruz (Today's People) when it ran a photo of actor George Clooney wearing a "Je Suis Charlie" pin at the Golden Globes. The headline of the newspaper read, "I'm Charlie Too," which the judges pronounced as "obscene," according to a report from BBC.
The photo in question was of the actor at the Golden Globes, where he was recipient of the Cecil b. DeMille award, and wore his "Je Suis Charlie" pin on his tuxedo. His wife, Amal, a human rights lawyer, was also shown to have the same embelm on her clutch during the awards show.
The newspaper's director, Ahmad Sattari said, "The court in charge of cultural affairs and the media imposed the ban on the newspaper for publishing a headline and a picture which it deemed insulting."
BBC Persian senior editor Ebrahim Khalil also noted that the paper was only in its first month in circulation, but that it's close to President Hassan Rouhani's political position, and although the court's ruling is still pending for a final decision later on, the ban is unlikely to be overturned.
The Wrap reported that following the incident on Charlie Hebdo, the Iranian president condemned the violent action, saying, "Violence and terrorism is reprehensible whether in this region, in Europe or in the United States."
Iran is not the only country that limited freedom of the press in light of the Charlie Hebdo attack. The website also reported that personalities from MSNBC and CNN have also spoken about their networks' policies, which too, prohibited airing Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
According to Reuters, Clooney's position regarding the attack is especially important because he, like many other Hollywood celebrities, are popular among Iranian youth, despite his films being banned in the country. Many gain access to Hollywood films through pirated videos because the Islamic republic has deemed them "culturally decadent."
However, despite that, Variety maintains that support for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack continued on during the awards show, with Hollywood Foreign Press Association's president Theo Kingma wrapped up his speech by calling for freedom of speech around the world.
