TEHRAN, June 2 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian authorities have suspended the operations of one of the country's most prominent news agencies, Fars, over the publication of "false news", Iran's ministry of culture said in a statement on Monday.
The agency, which was founded in 2002, on Sunday cited a source as saying that the Iranian government intended to replace the head of Iran's central bank, Tahmasb Mazaheri, with the country's first vice-president, Parviz Davoodi. Iranian authorities later denied the report and the agency published a retraction.
Iran's commission for the monitoring of non-governmental press agencies called the news published by Fars "irresponsible," and ordered the agency to suspend its operations. It also said that the decision had been made after taking into account a number of previous warnings that the agency had been given over its reporting.
Fars halted operations at 11:30 a.m. local time (07:00 GMT) on Monday.
