Gholamhossein Karbaschi

Gholamhossein Karbaschi served as Mayor of Tehran from 1989 to 1998, transforming the city's infrastructure and cultural life — and the media landscape. He founded Hamshahri in 1992 as the first colour daily in Iran, which grew to 400,000 circulation within three years and became the reformists' most powerful media platform. A close Khatami ally, he managed the reformist coalition's communications strategy. In 1998–1999 he was prosecuted on graft charges widely regarded as politically motivated — part of the hardliners' strategy of destroying the reformist political machine institution by institution. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison (later suspended) and five years' ban from public office. He subsequently ran the newspaper Ham-Mihan. He was also the founder of the Executives of Construction Party (Hezb-e Kargozaran-e Sazandegi), one of the main reformist parties.