Report: Iranian journalist defects while covering nuclear negotiations in Switzerland
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Iran has confirmed that an Iranian journalist defected while covering nuclear negotiations underway in Switzerland between Tehran and world powers on the country's controversial atomic program.
The Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency late Sunday, said the journalist defected last week and was suspended from his job at the semi-official ISCA agency. ISCA is a less known media outlet in Tehran.
The ministry did not identify the reporter but ISCA's editor Amir Hossein Motaghi was covering the talks in the Swiss town of Lausanne.
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Earlier, Motaghi had worked as a sports reporter and was also one of scores of Iranian journalists active in the media section of President Hassan Rouhani's campaign headquarters in the run-up to Iran's 2013 presidential election.