{"id":3361,"date":"2025-07-29T16:38:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T16:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:38:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:38:44","slug":"tehran-prosecutor-files-charges-against-iranian-cartoonist-hadi-heidari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/tehran-prosecutor-files-charges-against-iranian-cartoonist-hadi-heidari\/","title":{"rendered":"Tehran Prosecutor Files Charges Against Iranian Cartoonist Hadi Heidari"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Tehran prosecutor has filed charges against Hadi Heidari, an Iranian cartoonist, over a caricature depicting President Masoud Pezeshkian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mizan News Agency<\/a>, the media arm of Iran\u2019s Judiciary, reported on July 29, 2025, that \u201cthe Tehran prosecutor has filed charges against a cartoonist for publishing an insulting caricature targeting the Iranian people. The cartoonist in question has been summoned to the Tehran prosecutor\u2019s office, and a judicial case has been opened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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While Mizan did not name the cartoonist, a caricature by Hadi Heidari had sparked controversy the previous day. Heidari\u2019s caricature portrayed President Masoud Pezeshkian riding a donkey backward, with the word \u201cunity\u201d (a key slogan from Pezeshkian\u2019s election campaign) written on the donkey\u2019s neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caricature was drawn in response to a bill submitted by the government to the parliament. On July 21, 2025, President Pezeshkian sent a letter to Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, introducing the \u201cBill to Counter the Publication of False News Content in Cyberspace\u201d with double urgency. This bill could significantly restrict free information dissemination in Iran, particularly for social media users, and has drawn widespread criticism from journalists and political activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cBill to Counter the Publication of False News Content in Cyberspace\u201d was sent to parliament at a time when, throughout 2024<\/a> and the first half of 2025<\/a>, \u201cspreading falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion\u201d was the most frequently cited charge against journalists and media outlets in Iran. This extralegal accusation, repeatedly leveled by the Islamic Republic against media professionals, systematically targets the credibility of independent journalism in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tehran prosecutor has filed charges against Hadi Heidari, an Iranian cartoonist, over a caricature depicting President Masoud Pezeshkian. Mizan News Agency, the media arm of Iran\u2019s Judiciary, reported on July 29, 2025, that \u201cthe Tehran prosecutor has filed charges against a cartoonist for publishing an insulting caricature targeting the Iranian people. The cartoonist in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,25],"tags":[433],"class_list":{"0":"post-3361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-repression-of-journalists","9":"tag-hadi-heidari"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3364,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions\/3364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deffi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}