Press cartoonists say they are dodging “moving red lines” in the run-up to a June 14 presidential election in Iran, a country where a satirical image can get a newspaper banned or an editor jailed.

There have always been no-go areas, such as caricaturing supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the military, but there has still been a certain freedom of tone during the campaign.

Two leading cartoonists, working at a local newspapers, told AFP their job remains fraught with difficulty rawing as the restrictions have not been clearly defined.

Several others from across the political spectrum declined to be interviewed by AFP about their election coverage.

Jamal Rahmati, 40, artistic director of Etemad newspaper, told AFP that, “in general, before the elections we get relative freedom, to a surprising degree. We can touch on every topic except clerics.

“Nowadays, there may be a problem with any topic because the boundaries are not clearly defined,” he added.

The bodies supervising the media “require us not to put a dark interpretation on the situation in the country, but what is a dark interpretation?“

Some things are obvious, and the Culture Ministry, which supervises the media, warned the press in July against publishing certain reports about the impact of Western sanctions that plunged Iran into a deep crisis.

Hadi Heidari, 33, who directs art work at the oft-banned reformist daily Shargh, echoed his colleague.

“Officially, we must work within the framework of the rights outlined in the constitution, with the exception of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the armed forces,” said Heidari. “But there is an unwritten law which I interpret as moving red lines. For instance if an issue is in the spotlight, this law says ‘do not touch.’“

As an example, Rahmati cites the seemingly innocuous matter of a hike in poultry prices, saying he would have never thought that drawing a chicken would be a red line.

For reformist newspapers, Ahmadinejad, who is barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term, has also become a red line.

Heidari said that while he was able to caricature Ahmadinejad in 2009, he can’t now.

This year the “atmosphere is closed and we are walking through a minefield.”

In late April, Ayatollah Khamenei outlined his vision of how the media ought to conduct itself during the election campaign.

The media should “encourage people to choose correctly, criticize in a logical manner and not publish just anything,” he said.