The appearance of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad at the 19th International Exhibition of Press and News Agencies in Iran caused tensions in one of the pavillions, Tabnak news website reported.
Nourizad is not only a filmmaker, but also an activist, and former journalist. He was arrested after writing a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, urging him to apologize to the nation for the bloody crackdown on the opposition after the disputed 2009 June presidential elections.
On 11 December 2010, Nourizad started a hunger strike to protest a lack of attention from Iranian authorities to his complaints of alleged mistreatment by interrogators at the Evin prison.
On December 16 authorities detained his family members after they showed up outside the prison to inquire about his failing health.
At the exhibition he was surrounded by journalists who tried to ask him a few questions, yet Nourizad refused to answer, and tried to leave the exhibition.
The people there started chanding death slogans to Nourizad for him sending letter to the Supreme Leader.
Iran’s 19th International Exhibition of Press, News Agencies, and Information Websites has been inaugurated in a ceremony at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla (Grand Prayers Ground).
Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini accompanied with a number of cultural officials and journalists attended the opening ceremony on October 28, 2012.
The exhibition is hosting some 2,380 Persian dailies, magazines and periodicals while about 50 pavilions have been dedicated to international section, said the Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance for Press and Information Mohammad-Jafar Mohammadzadeh.
