President Khatami's election has resulted in a more independent press, and the establishment of reformist publications. Before 1997 only a handful of journals and newspapers existed, mostly mouthpieces for the conservative clerical establishment. The constitution guarantees freedom of the press but contains strict sanctions against publishing material contrary to public morality or that would insult religious beliefs or libel individuals. There are six main national daily newspapers. There are three English-language daily newspapers published from Tehran, the Tehran Times, Iran Daily and Kayhan International.
Weekly newspapers tend to be special interest publications.
World Economy is published daily, and is the most popular business publication, although distribution is generally limited to Tehran. There are three national radio channels, Radio Networks 1 and 2 and Radio Quran. Regional and local radio programmes are broadcast in Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bandari, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish, Mazandarani, Pashtu, Turkoman, Turkish and Urdu. The external radio service broadcasts in English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, Urdu, Pashtu, Armenian, Bengali, Russian and Farsi. Broadcasting is tightly controlled by the state and there have been many purges of editors whose views were not approved of.