The editor in-chief and a social media administrator of Iran’s semiofficial Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) were detained last week over a coronavirus (COVID-19) “treatment” cartoon perceived as insulting to the country's leadership.

The cartoon ridicules those promoting fake treatments to fend off the coronavirus, including drinking camel urine and inserting violet oil in the anus, under the guise of Islamic medicine. It appeared to suggest that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s highest authority, backs such measures. Khameini is depicted as a nurse calling for silence.

A man who allegedly posted online a video of himself drinking a glass of camel urine was lately detained after the video went viral. Many Iranians mocked him on social media.

The cartoon was reportedly removed from ILNA’s Telegram channel shortly after appearing. The news service’s editor in-chief, Masud Heydari, has been released on bail, according to local reports, while its Telegram administrator Hamid Haghjoo was still in detention. It was not clear if the pair had been charged.

ILNA, according to RFE/RL, has denied any affiliation with the “disrespectful” cartoon while accusing its opponents of having faked the news agency’s logo and falsely accused it of publishing the cartoon.

Tehran’s Prosecutor Ali Alghasi Mehr said on April 27 that a probe has been launched into the affair. “Immediately after the publishing of the insulting image, it was ordered to be removed from the channel,” Alghasi Mehr was quoted as saying by Iranian media. “The [person in charge] of ILNA and the administrator of the Telegram channel were both arrested on the evening of [April 23],” he added.

Until it was recently overtaken by Turkey, Iran had the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.

The New York-based Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Iranian authorities to immediately drop their investigations into Heydari and Haghjoo.

"At a time when prisons are petri dishes for the COVID-19 virus, Iranian authorities should cease locking up journalists for trivial offenses like allegedly sharing a cartoon," CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator Sherif Mansour said in an April 27 statement.

"Hamid Haghjoo should be released immediately, and authorities should drop any investigation into him, Masud Heydari, and all other journalists at the Iranian Labor News Agency,” he added.

Iran ranks 170th on Reporters Without Borders 2020 Press Freedom Index.