The Iranian authorities have banned several dozen websites for political and pornographic content, including those of US radio stations broadcasting in Farsi, the press reported on Sunday.
”One hundred illegal websites are blocked,” Post and Telecommunications Minister Ahmad Motamedi was quoted as saying in the reformist newspaper Yass-e No.
”There are websites that insult the beliefs of different religions,” the minister argued to explain the ban.
According to other press reports the number of internet websites on the official blacklist is much higher.
Iran’s student news agency ISNA, quoting an internet service provider who declined to be named, said that the post and telecommunications ministry have drawn up a list of 15 000 banned websites.
The ministry distributed the list to Internet service providers and told thm to block these websites, ISNA reported.
”We have received a list of nearly 2 000 websites and were told to limit access to them,” said the head of one internet service provider.
Most of these websites post pornographic material but some are also politically-oriented, according to the reports. Among those banned are several websites with close links to reformists, such as the Emrouz and Womeniniran websites.
Also banned are websites of US radio stations that broadcast in Farsi such as Voice of America and Iran Farda, which are considered by the Iranian authorities as voices of US propaganda, the reports said.
Iran’s chief prosecutor Ayatollah Abdol-Ali Namazi said on Tuesday that the judiciary had set up a special department to investigate and prosecute internet offences in line with the strict laws that cover the Islamic republic’s media.
He told the Hambastegi paper that Iran’s press law, which sets strict conditions on what can be published and subjects offenders to heavy jail terms, would also apply to Internet content produced by Iranian residents.
Deputy post and telecommunications minister Masood Davari-Nejad also announced on Tuesday measures to block ”immoral sites as well as political sites which rudely make fun of religious and political figures in the country.” – Sapa-AFP