Mohammed Zarif speaks to a reporter
Photo: EPA
Iranian journalist seeks political asylum at nuclear talks
Former Rouhani advisor requests Swiss asylum, citing censorship laws as he reports on negotiations.
An Iranian journalist who previously served as a media advisor to President Hassan Rouhani has sought political asylum in Switzerland where he was reporting on Iran's nuclear negotiations, Iranian news websites reported.
"My conscience would not allow me to carry out my profession in this manner any more," the Telegraph reported him as telling IraneFarda, an opposition news website based in London.
Iranian news website Tabnak named the journalist as Amir Hossein Motaghi, who helped Rouhani to his landslide win in the 2013 presidential elections.
Britain's Daily Telegraph quoted Motaghi complaining about censorship, saying he could "only write what he was told".
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif speaks to journalist in Montreux, Switzerland on March 3 (Photo: EPA)
Motaghi was in Lausanne covering the nuclear talks for the Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA) but that organisation said it had now ended its relationship with him.
"Following reports of a known person seeking asylum ... ISCA informed the (Iranian foreign) ministry it had cut all ties with this individual," the ministry said in a statement cited by Iran's Fars news agency.
The Swiss authorities declined to comment.
"For reasons of protecting personal data, we never give any information about individual cases," said Celine Kohlprath, spokeswoman of the Swiss state secretariat for migration.
