Between the lines
Updated on 09 March 2006
How free is Iran? What are the limits on what Iranians can say and do?
Iranian man reads newspaper at newsstand in Tehran
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We're in Isfahan where the face of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei stares down across the square Supreme leader is not an understatement.
Despite a scattering of democratic institutions, Ayatollah Khameni is the absolute ruler of Iran's theocracy, a governing system which many international organisations claim abuses basic human rights.
The State department has lambasted Iran's human rights record in its latest report - perhaps trying to open another front in its attempts to pressurise Iran over its nuclear programme.
But being here you quickly discover that the media operate between what they call 'red lines' which you cross at your peril. I've been trying establish what these red lines are and how they work - within red lines, that is.
