Election tensions at an Iranian expo
Heated exchanges and melees mark news media exhibition

By Thomas Erdbrink
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

TEHRAN --As she watched a video at the exhibition booth of a pro-government news agency, the young Iranian woman became incensed at its portrayal of two leading opposition figures.

The video shown by Borna News accused Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, opposition candidates in Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election, of lying and inciting sedition, with scenes of war and exploding hand grenades edited in for emphasis.

"Who is inciting here?" the woman, who gave her name only as Maryam, demanded loudly while watching the video. "The truth is clear for all to see!"

"No, it is those men who have betrayed the nation," a man with a gray moustache responded angrily. The two glared at each other. "She's crazy," the man said to the surrounding crowd. "I speak the truth," she replied.

The exchange, one of many encounters at an annual news media exposition, illustrated the simmering political tension that continues to roil Iran more than four months after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed reelection, dismissing opposition charges of widespread fraud.

In other incidents at the 16th International Exhibition of Press and News Agencies, Karroubi and a top Mousavi aide were roughed up by pro-government vigilantes over the weekend, and authorities prematurely closed the expo without explanation Monday afternoon before reopening it hours later as large crowds waited at the entrance.

Usually a low-key event showcasing Iranian news outlets and international media with offices in Iran, the expo, scheduled to run Oct. 20-27, turned into the latest indicator that Iranians remain divided after this summer's post-election violence, when dozens of people were killed and hundreds arrested in a crackdown on street protests.

On Friday, Karroubi, a Shiite Muslim cleric, was set upon during a visit to the fair, where about 1,500 mainly state-owned domestic media outlets and 30 foreign organizations displayed their work. In the melee, one of his bodyguards drew a gun, pro-government media reported.

Opposition Web sites said the editor of a state newspaper attempted to stab Karroubi. Neither report could be independently verified. A video clip showed a disheveled Karroubi leaving the expo, his turban missing and his cloak askew.

In a separate visit Sunday, Mousavi aide Ali Reza Beheshti came under attack.

As rumors spread Saturday that Mousavi himself was about to visit the fair, shouting matches broke out between his supporters and opponents. People later said Mousavi had been stopped at the outer gate of the exhibition at Tehran's sprawling grand prayer hall complex.

Iran's main pro-government media outlets maintained slick booths at the exhibition; a few opposition newspapers and Web sites were tucked away on the sidelines. Visitors -- a mix of government supporters and middle-class Tehran residents who voted against Ahmadinejad -- openly vented their differences.

At an enormous stand lined with flat-screen television monitors and decorated with flowers, Ibrahim Najafi, a veteran journalist for the pro-government "Iran" newspaper, oversaw the signing of guest books, smiling as middle-class Tehranis waited their turn to write mostly nasty comments.

"You are the symbol of censorship," someone wrote. Another comment said: "I am really sad for your cheating, lying medium, which unfortunately bears the name of our beautiful nation." There were also supportive remarks, such as one calling the paper "the best news source where one can hear the truthful news of the respected government."

Najafi shrugged off the criticism. "The paper has seen better days, and I am only doing my job," he said. Still, he had stapled together many of the guest book's pages so people could not read them.

At the small booth of Hayat-e Now, a newspaper supporting the opposition, pre-election front pages showed dozens of pictures of Mousavi, who has increasingly lowered his profile amid calls for his arrest and the government's closure of opposition news media.

"I hope your paper won't suffer the same fate as all the other newspapers that were critical of the government," someone wrote in green ink, Mousavi's campaign color, in the paper's guest book. "The path of freedom is long," the comment read. "See you at the next demonstration."

Special correspondent Kay Armin Serjoie contributed to this report.