Ahvaz, Iran
The Iranian government closed local offices of Al-Jazeera this week, saying the Arabic-language satellite station was encouraging violent protests among the Arab minority in Iran. Some 200 Arab-Iranians were arrested during a weekend of rioting sparked by a false report that Iran was considering relocating ethnic Arabs, most of whom live in the oil-rich region near the Iraqi border. Iran’s government officially controls all TV and radio, but many Iranians have illegal satellite dishes to receive news from abroad. Only about 3 percent of Iranians are Arabs; most are Persians or Azeris.
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