``Freedom, forever,'' they yelled, their voices getting louder and angrier.``Yazdi, resign, resign,'' they chanted, referring to Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, who as the head of the powerful judiciary is behind the closure of about half a dozen newspapers and the arrests of several journalists.

The reason behind the anger is that Iran's newspapers are at the centre of the battle over the country's future between President Mohammad Khatami and the hard-line clerics who oppose his efforts to liberalise government and society. The newspapers do not just cover the news, they are the news.

Since Iran has no formal political parties, most of Tehran's 37 papers have become stand-in parties -- each with its own platform in what has become the liveliest democratic debate the country has ever seen. The moderatesclaim about a dozen newspapers, the most popular being Salam, Hamshahri, Zan, Jahan-e Eslam, Asr-e Ma and Arya.

The hardline papers include Kayhan, Resalat, Jomhuri Eslami, Shalamcheh and Abrar. Shalamcheh reflects the extremist views of the Ansar-e Hezbollah, a group that breaks up pro-democracy rallies and attacks dissidents.

The outspoken Tous, closed down in September, has become a symbol in the struggle for a free press. Its editor, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, says the liberal papers started after Khatami's election are being attacked by hardliners to undermine the president. ``They were unable to fight him directly, so they attacked his achievements to weaken him,'' said Shamsolvaezin.

Shamsolvaezin, who was jailed along with three other senior colleagues, said 30 vigilantes stormed his newspaper in September ``by jumping over the wall,'' blindfolding them and making them stand against the wall.

Tous' struggle to survive is typical of how the battle betweenmoderates and hardliners over Iran's future is being fought. The paper began publishing with the name Jameah after Khatami became president in August 1997. A court order, alleging libel and fabrication of stories, closed it down last June.

It then reappeared under two other names -- Tous and Aftab-e Emrouz -- after being given new licences to publish by the ministry of culture and guidance, which is under Khatami's control. Each time it was shut down by the judiciary, which is run by the hardliners. The paper was first closed after it reported that the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Rahim Safavi, told his troops in private meeting to ``cut out the throats and tongues'' of the liberal press.

But Tous had a stormy relationship with the hardliners from the start, partly because it questioned the powers of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.The paper was closed for good on June 16, a day after Khamenei ordered the judiciary to get tough withnewspapers that he claimed had abused press freedom.

Some journalists also say Tous miffed Khamenei because it ignored an unspoken rule of Iranian newspapers -- dedicating the top of the front page and a few inside columns to news about the leader and senior clergymen.

But Ali Movahedi Savoji, a hardline member of parliament, says the judiciary acted totally under the law in banning Tous. ``Over the past year, we gave them 114 warnings that they were violating the law. The press is free, but at the same time laws have to be obeyed,'' said Savoji.

Shamsolvaezin has a different view about so-called freedom in Iran following his jailing. ``We have freedom of expression in Iran,'' he said. ``But the problem is freedom after expression.''