The deputy director of the Iranian news agency Fars, close to the authorities, has been arrested, public radio and television IRIB announced on Monday evening.
"
The deputy head of the Fars News news agency, Abbas Darvish Tavanger, has been arrested for falsifying news
," she said.
According to IRIB, "
he is still in detention so that we can know the reasons why he was rigging the news and creating fake news bulletins
".
These are confidential bulletins distributed to certain subscribers.
Cyberattack against Fars
On November 26, Fars had indicated on his Telegram channel that "
user access
" to his site "
had been disrupted
" after "
a complex hacking and cyberattack operation
".
A group calling itself "
Black Reward
" claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, saying it had access to dozens of confidential documents.
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This arrest comes as Iran is the scene of a protest movement triggered by the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurd arrested three days earlier by the morality police.
Hundreds of people, mainly protesters but also members of the security forces, have been killed since the start of the protest.
Thousands of people including journalists, actors and lawyers were also arrested during the demonstrations, generally described as
"riots"
by the authorities.
