TEHRAN, Dec 9: Journalists from the United States visiting Iran will from this week be fingerprinted on entry in a tit-for-tat response to harsh new US immigration checks, state television announced.

“The measure, which goes into effect today, follows a letter by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and only includes American journalists,” said army information official General Hamid-Reza Hossein Abadi.

Iran’s culture ministry had called for the measure in the light of “the recent insults by US government officials towards Iranian nationals”.

The ministry had also demanded that US journalists fill in lengthy forms providing “full personal details” and contact numbers so they can be constantly reached when in the Islamic Republic.

But an editorial in the hardline Jomhuri-Eslami newspaper said the measures did not go far enough, arguing that British nationals should also receive the same treatment.

As part of its post-September 11 security measures, the United States has begun photographing and fingerprinting visitors from five Muslim countries considered by the State Department to be sponsors of terrorism.—AFP