Iran’s state television interrupted the time allotted to presidential candidate Mohammadreza Aref 15 minutes into the program.
The speech was aired at 11:30 PM and was supposed to address the question posed to the candidates by Iranians living outside of Iran.
The program was being aired on the Jam-e Jam channel for Iranians outside of Iran to address some of their concerns. However, the program was suddenly cut off and a subtitle stated “technical difficulties” had caused the interruption. The interruption continued for more than 60 minutes and the program did not resume.
Hassan Rasouli, the campaign chief for Mohammadreza Aref, reacted to the interruption, saying: “We are still awaiting answers from the broadcasting officials.”
He added: “We hope that this sudden interruption was not pre-planned.”
The program in question was pre-recorded, according to Rasouli , and had apparently received the channel’s approval for broadcast.
Earlier, parts of a speech by another candidate, Mohsen Rezai, were censored while being aired.
Iran’s presidential election will take place on June 14.
