The story: Iranian authorities are under rising public scrutiny amid a surge in reported poisonings caused by consumption of bootleg alcohol. Critics attribute the phenomenon to the country’s longstanding alcohol ban, saying that it fuels underground liquor production. However, officials and conservative media continue to defend the prohibition as a religious mandate.

The coverage: There has been a significant rise in the reported number of alcohol-related poisonings across Iran over the past month.

• Official reports put the number of poisoning cases in Alborz Province near Tehran at 191 during June 13-23, with 17 deaths. Meanwhile, a police official said on June 26 that three people had died in the northern Mazandaran Province.
  
  
• A June 27 report by the conservative Tasnim News Agency placed the number of those poisoned in the southern Hormozgan Province at 34. A hospital official told Fars News Agency on June 26 that 29 people had been...