In a country that Reporters sans Frontiers labelled ‘the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle east’, the internet has become the last public arena for dissenting voices. But even this relatively safe haven is threatened by new laws demanding the registration of all websites and weblogs sourced in the country by March 1 2007. Iranian bloggers are incensed by the move, which they say will stifle the already tenuous right to free speech. (01-MAR-07)
Laura Mitchison from Index on Censorship reports
Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, the conservative establishment, a large network of unelected institutions controlled by the Supreme Leader, have systematically restricted free expression if it conflicts with cultural values. The 1995 Press Law prohibits the publishing of a broad and ill-defined category of subjects, including material ‘insulting Islam and its sanctities’, or ‘promoting subjects that might damage the foundation of the Islamic Republic’. Iran’s judiciary has closed over 100 print media outlets and imprisoned hundreds of journalists in the last six years, propelling scores of writers and activists into cyberspace.
The explosion of web-blogging
With a youthful, politicised and increasingly technology-savvy population (over two-thirds of Iranians are under thirty), the phenomenon of weblogging has exploded in recent years. An estimated 7.5 million Iranians have access to the internet, and Farsi is the fourth most frequently used language for on-line journals.
When initially introduced, the internet service was relatively open and offered an easy way for journalists and activists to bypass strict press laws. Iran’s burgeoning online communities have been able to evade the cultural and political restraints regarding speech appearance and relations between the sexes. On the public streets, the morality police mete out discretionary punishment to women showing their hair or couples displaying affection, but the internet makes it easy to socialise, flirt, tell irreverent jokes and keep in touch. Cyberspace also provides a serious forum for people to discuss contentious issues, such as women’s rights, and to criticise the current regime.
The first wave of Iran’s internet censorship regime
‘The worst that could happen to a blogger in the West is that they might be regarded as self-absorbed cyber-geeks or ‘anoraks’, but in Iran……honest self-expression carries a heavy price’, writes Nasrin Alavi in We are Iran; her insightful compendium of Iranian weblogs. Even prior to the new laws, the government employed a highly restrictive filtering system, using technology supplied by Western corporations, according to New Scientist magazine. Pornographic sites and those dealing with religion, politics and women’s rights are usually the most targeted. Iran was also the first government to take direct against an online journalist. In April 2003 Sina Motallebi, creator of a popular blog www.rooznegar.com, was arrested along with his elderly father. Since then, over 30 online journalists have been imprisoned. Fearing persecution, many online journalists now post anonymously.
The new laws increase content filtering and remove the right to remain anonymous. The government has long had a policy of blocking citizen’s access to ‘harmful websites’, but the new law gives explicit guidelines on illegal content and enables the authorities to filter web content written in Farsi outside of Iran. New regulations also require web-bloggers to provide their name, address, telephone number, target audience, approximate audience numbers and other personal information. Those who fail to do so risk being shut down or convicted in court.
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic guidance, which drafted the new law, says that the measures are designed ‘to make the internet atmosphere clean and safe’. However, online journalist Roozbeh Mirebrahimi says that the registration policy not only violates human rights, it infringes Iran’s own constitution. ‘The approval of the cabinet doesn’t make the government’s decisions legitimate. It should pass via the Parliament. It reflects the nature of the conservatives in Iran who close their eyes to freedom of speech.’
Activists planning to defy censorship meet with intimidation
Farnaz Seify, a feminist blogger from Tehran, told Inter Press Service News Agency in January that she would not register her website. ‘I don’t need permission to have freedom of expression.’ She added: ‘The government´s new policy of forcing registrations indicates that the authorities are making it clear that no one is permitted to criticise or even discuss religion, government´s policies, revolution, ayatollahs and social problems.’ Seify was arrested along with two other feminist journalists, Mansoureh Shojaie and Tala’at Taghiniya, en route to a training workshop in India at the end of January. She was taken to the notorious section 209 of Evin prison, accused of acting against ‘national security interests’. Although the three women were released after 3 days, they could face trial in less than two months.
New Technology offers hope for the future?
Journalist Roozbeh Mirebrahimi believes the new legislation will not be effective in the long-term: ‘Technology and the passionate people who want to increase their awareness and knowledge will find a way to move forward and the government is just wasting its time and money’. Perhaps Mirebrahimi’s prediction will be fulfilled by Wikileaks, a site which allows anyone to post documents on the web without fear of being traced. Normally an email or a document posted to a website can be traced back to its source because each data packet carries the IP address of the last server that it passed though. Designed by activists and open-source software engineers, Wikileaks routes data through a network of servers that uses cryptology to hide the path that the packet took.
Julien Pain, a campaigner with Reporters sans Frontiers in Paris, believes the site will guarantee much-needed anonymity for activists in repressive states like Iran and the People´s Republic of China. However, Tor, the protocol that Wikileaks employs to provide its users with anonymity, has not yet been perfected. Ben Laurie, a London-based security expert, said: ‘I would not trust my life or my liberty to Tor’.
Article 19, Persian Impediment Campaign
Guardian
Iran Press Service
Portobello Books
