Censorship in Iran is the limiting or suppressing of the publishing, dissemination, and viewing of certain information in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The majority of such censorship is implemented or mandated by the Iranian government.
Censored content often includes information that relates to women's rights, freedom of speech, democracy, pornography, certain news sources, certain religious content, and many websites.
Censored media include essentially all capable of reaching an even marginal audience, including television, print media, radio, film, museum and gallery exhibits, and the Internet. Iranians attempting to access most informational databases and search engines are met with a page reading: "The requested page is forbidden."[1] Most forms of media are vetted for acceptability by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Reporters Without Borders ranks Iran's press situation as "Very serious", the worst ranking on their five-point scale.[2] Iran's Internet censorship policy is labeled "Pervasive" by the OpenNet Initiative's global Internet filtering map, also the worst ranking used.[3]
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Censorship in Iran encompasses a wide range of subject matter. The agendas behind such censorship are varied; some are stated outright by Iranian government itself and some are surmised by observers inside and out of the country.
Censorship in Iran is largely seen as a measure to maintain the stability of the country and the control of the Islamic government. Censorship helps prevent unapproved reformist, counter-revolutionary, or religious proponents, peaceful or otherwise, from organizing themselves and spreading their ideals. In 2007, for example, five women were charged with "endangering national security" and sentenced to prison for collecting over a million signatures supporting the abolishment of laws discriminating against women.[4]
Additionally, censorship prevents Iranian citizens from discovering or learning more about past and current failures and abuses of the government that could create or inflame anti-government sentiment. Some of the topics explicitly banned from discussion in the media by the Supreme National Security Council include Iran's economic troubles, the possibility of new international sanctions targeted at Iran's nuclear program, negotiations with the United States regarding Iraq, social taboos, unrest among Iran's Azeri and other ethnic minorities, and, more recently, the arrests of Haleh Esfandiari, Kian Tajbakhsh and Ali Shakeri.[4][5]
Two notable crackdowns on the Iranian press occurred on August 7–11, 1979, early in the Islamic Revolution when the Khomeini forces were consolidating control and dozens of non-Islamist newspapers were banned under a new press law banning "counter-revolutionary policies and acts." [6]
And in April 2000, when the conservative-controlled judiciary launched "a wide-ranging crackdown" against the then flowering of democratic reformism. Nearly all of the reformist dailies were closed and many leading journalists jailed.[7]
Despite a strict ban on satellite television, dishes dot many Iranian rooftops and people have access to dozens of Persian-language channels, including the Voice of America, broadcasting a daily dose of politics and entertainment. 30 percent of Iranians watch satellite channels, but observers say the figures are likely to be higher.[8]
A number of unauthorised foreign radio services also broadcast into Iran on shortwave, and encounter occasional jamming by the Iranian government due to their controversial nature. Such services include a popular phone-in programme from Kol Israel (Voice of Israel), where callers must dial a number in Europe to be rerouted to the studio in Israel in order to protect against persecution for communicating with an enemy state.[9]
In March 2009, Amoo Pourang (Uncle Pourang), an Iranian children television show watched by millions of Iranian children three times a week on state TV was pulled off after a child appearing on the program called his pet monkey Mahmoud Ahmadinejad live on air.[10] In the 1980s, Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Revolution, pronounced death sentences for the makers of a radio programme in which a female respondent named a Japanese soap opera character as her role model, rather than Fatimah, the daughter of prophet of Islam Muhammad.The death sentence was later revoked.
The agents of censorship are sometimes not official government employees, but religious organizations (although these can operate in tandem with government agencies). Koranic schools have been known to participate in the assault, vandalism and ransacking of journalists and news organizations perceived as critical of Islam or its major figures, such as Ayatollah Khomeini.[5]
In 2007, after student newspapers at Amirkabir University of Technology published articles suggesting that no human being—including Muhammad--could be infallible, eight student leaders were removed to Evin Prison.[4]
In the first decade of the 21st century, Iran experienced a great surge in Internet usage, and, with 20 million people on the Internet, currently has the second highest percentage of its population online in the Middle East, after Israel. When initially introduced, the Internet services provided by the government within Iran were comparatively open. Many users saw the Internet as an easy way to get around Iran's strict press laws.[11][12]
In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic. The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news sites.[8]
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