The Latest from Iran (31 July): So This is Freedom of the Press....

2010 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, challenging the Government's portrayal of "security" in Iran, has asked, "Is it safe?" when figures like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi are kept under prolonged house arrest.

2000 GMT: You Gotta Laugh. President Ahmadinejad was in northwest Iran today, celebrating the inclusion of the Tabriz Grand Bazaar on the list of World Heritage Sites. However, it was this episode earlier in the week that made us smile:

In a meeting of the cabinet with provincial governors and other senior government officials around the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said sarcastically, "Anybody who sits next to us is arrested." He made the statement after asking Hamid Baghaei, his vice president for executive affairs, to sit next to him. Over the last few months there have been persistent rumors that Baghaei's arrest is imminent.

Ahmadinejad will want to hold on to that sense of humour. Reformist MP Dariush Ghanbari, who has struck out at the Government this week, continued his criticism in Parliament today with the declaration that the people of Iran have become "debtors or unemployed" under Ahmadinejad's leadership. He sent the message to the President, "Rather than oil money reaching Iranian households, [people] are receiving court orders to repay their debts or report to jail, because your administration has mishandled the restructuring of subsidies."

1910 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Ayatollah Abolghasem Khazali, a member of the Assembly of Experts, has declared, "I kissed Ahmadinejad's lips in 2005, but I don't like him in 2011 because he doesn't obey the Supreme Leader."

1440 GMT: All-is-Well Alert. Rustam Qassemi, the Revolutionary Guard who has been nominated as Minister of Oil, has said, "I am not under United Nations sanctions, but I am under US sanctions, which are not very important for us."

1430 GMT: Press Watch. Back to our opening theme today....

Could the reformist Parleman News be the next website to be filtered by Iranian authorities? MP Zohreh Elahian has claimed that the site "spreads false news".

1350 GMT: Politics Watch. Principlist MP Hassan Ghafourifard has declared that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani "must break his silence" over the events after the 2009 Presidential elections and that reformists must stop setting conditions for their participation in next March's Parliamentary ballot.

Soulat Mortazavi, the head of the State Election Committee has reinforced the message, "[Former President Mohammad] Khatami and followers cannot set conditions. The nezam (system) does that."

1335 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Zoroastrian pol and cultural activist Mohsen Sadeghi-Nour has been given a 4 1/2-year prison sentence.

1330 GMT: The US Hikers. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei has said that verdicts on US citizens Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on charges of espionage will be announced in coming days.

Fattal, Bauer, and Sarah Shourd were arrested two years ago by Iranian forces as the three were hiking along the Iran-Iraq border. Shourd was freed on $500,000 bail in September 2010 and returned to the United States.

Fattal and Bauer pleaded not guilty in a court session today. Shourd has refused to return for trial.

1325 GMT: Flattery of the Day. The Governor of Gilan Province in northern Iran has told a Government meeting: "Iran was once known for Cyrus the Great, but today it is known for Mahmoud the Great!"

1315 GMT: Oil Watch. The National Iranian Oil Company has confirmed that contracts with Khatam al-Anbia, the engineering branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, have now reached $25 billion.

0915 GMT: Not-Defensive-at-All Watch. Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, has declared that the head of the Council, Ayatollah Jannati, is the "embodiment of Islam", doing his "legal and religious duty". Kadkhodaei said, "Jannati never hides the truth and reveals the guilt of everyone."

Jannati and the Guardian Council have been criticised by reformists and the opposition, who want the Council removed as supervisor of Iran's elections, but also by conservatives. So Kadkhodaei was at pains to defend Jannati over the 2009 Presidential election --- not for any Council cover-up of electoral manipulation, but for allowing Mir Hossein Mousavi to run in the first place.

0835 GMT: Ahmadinejad Watch. Standard rhetoric from President Ahmadinejad on Saturday, as he addressed the "Horizon of Media" conference in Tehran, about the need for a campaign against global arrogance, the US, and the "Zionist regime". However, this summary from state outlet IRNA caught my eye:

In the western countries, they resort to democracy to attain power by trampling upon the legitimate rights of nations and humiliating human values, [Ahmadinejad] said....The Islamic Revolution created many human values and urged people to call for their demands and rights.

0730 GMT: At the Movies. Award-winning director Jafar Panahi, sentenced to six years in prison, has written a new script and officially applied to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance to begin filming.

Panahi, arrested in March 2010 for "activities against the state" after he began work on a film touching on the post-election crisis, has also been barred for 20 years from filmmaking or foreign travel.

0710 GMT: Corruption Watch. The Vice Chairman of Parliament's Economic Committee has said that the Majlis "has started research" on the operations on illegal wharves in the country.

The issue of illegal imports flared earlier this month when President Ahmadinejad criticised the rate of smuggling and implied involvement of the Revolutionary Guards, who immediately denounced the claim.

0705 GMT: Economy Watch. Khabar Online reports that the cement industry is in trouble, with production prices rising by 44% because of subsidy cuts and with exporters hindered by price restrictions.

0625 GMT: Oil Watch. As President Ahmadinejad nominates a Revolutionary Guard commander, Rustam Qassemi, to head the Ministry of Oil, a member of Parliament's Energy Committee warns of trouble ahead, claiming that the constant shuffle of Ministers of Oil has halted new projects in the South Pars gas and oil field and that production in the next three years is unlikely.

0620 GMT: Politics Watch. Earlier this week we reported that leading clerics, including Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, and former officials of the Ahmadinejad Government had formed a new political faction, the Islamic Constancy Front, to bring "unity" among conservatives and principlists.

Not so fast --- Aftab claims that the Front, despite the publicity for its launch, does not have a permit yet for its activities.

0605 GMT: Leisure Watch. Residents of Mazandaran Province in northern Iran may be hoping that the summer heat breaks during August --- the Deputy Governor has banned swimming in the Caspian Sea during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins tomorrow.

0550 GMT: We begin with a story of how any journalist --- not just one working for a "reformist" or "opposition" outlet --- can fall foul of the regime and even wind up in prison.

Earlier this week reports circulated that two journalists for Ayande News had been detained. An EA correspondent, monitoring the situation, noted that the publication's website had come close to a standstill, with no updating of the articles and editorials.

Yesterday the news was confirmed: Ayande's editor-in-chief Fouad Sadeghi has been arrested. His crime? He published an interview in which former Preisdent Rafsanjani --- trying to establish that his foreign policy was more sensible and effective than that of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad --- had implicitly criticised the Supreme Leader for rejecting diplomatic relations with the United States.