Iran
Iran has been an Islamic Republic since the 1979 Revolution, when the monarchy was overthrown and religious clerics assumed political control under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomenei. The executive branch of government is headed by the President, who is elected by the people and restricted to a maximum of two four-year terms in office. The former President Khatami had taken a comparatively reformist stance, supporting greater social and political freedoms. He was popular with the young in Iran but not with Iran's conservative Supreme Leader. The elections of June 2005 dealt a blow to the reformists when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran's ultra-conservative mayor, became president.
Vaguely worded Iranian laws and regulations restrict the exercise of the rights to free expression and to access information. Article 500 of the country's Penal Code states that "anyone who undertakes any form of propaganda against the state...will be sentenced to between three months and one year in prison," and leaves "propaganda" undefined. Iran's Press Law of 1986 forbids censorship while at the same time it establishes a broad basis for the harsh punishment of content deemed inappropriate. Under Ahmadinejad, the judiciary has imposed increased restrictions of freedom of expression and on the press, and there is systemic suppression of much intellectual dissent.
Pro-reformist independent newspapers that are critical of governmental policies are targeted and banned from publishing. In April 2000, the Office of the Leader and the judiciary launched a campaign against the independent press, closing more than one hundred newspapers and journals since. Although, there remain a few independent daily newspapers, they practise 'self-censorship' and avoid contentious topics.
Many Iranian journalists and dissidents increasingly rely on the Internet to circumvent the crackdown on free expression in the print media, and the government controlled television and radio. Many of the opinions expressed on Iranian websites would never be voiced in the newspapers. Access to the Internet is growing and widespread; according to some estimates there are now 1,500 Internet cafés in Tehran alone.
However, the government has imprisoned online journalists, bloggers, and technical support staff to try to reign in free expression on the Web. According to Human Rights Watch, the state has blocked thousands of websites, including sites that criticize government policies or report stories the government does not wish to see published and it has sought to limit the spread of blogs by blocking popular websites that offer free publishing tools for blogs. Human Rights Watch also document how regulations promulgated by the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, stipulate that access service providers (ASPs) for the Internet in Iran "are required to provide filtering systems to prevent access to prohibited immoral and political sites". Measures taken recently aim to control access to political information and news on the Internet, resulting in increased targeting of journalists who publish on the Internet.
The Writers Prison Committee of International PEN has noted that book censorship in Iran has tightened dramatically. The state pressures independent publishers. The Ministry of Culture and Guidance denies publication and republication permits to control opposing voices. The Iranian authorities have blacklisted several thousand new and previously published works and the publishing industry is said to be in crisis. The rise in book censorship appears to be part of a widespread crackdown on free expression.
Journalists and writers face imprisonment if they voice opposition to the governmental authorities, or if they insult or criticise the Supreme Leader. The Ministry of Information has expanded surveillance of dissidents, human rights activists and journalists. Iran currently imprisons the highest number of journalists in the Middle East. The threat of serving time in prison has led a number of writers and journalists to leave Iran or to censor themselves.
High profile international PEN cases in Iran have included the arrest of academics and journalists after their attendance at an academic and cultural conference in Berlin entitled "Iran after the elections", which debated social and political reform in Iran. Akbar Ganji, influential author of the collected investigative journalism Dungeons and Ghosts, was arrested in April 2000 following his participation in the conference and sentenced to six years imprisonment; he served parts of his sentence in solitary confinement and underwent hunger strikes to protest at his treatment. Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari, a journalist and reformist cleric was arrested on 5 August 2000 after taking part in the conference. Held in solitary confinement and then tried behind closed doors in the Special Court of the Clergy where he was convicted of "defaming government officials in articles" and "starting a campaign against the system" among other charges, Eshkevari was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.
Vaguely worded Iranian laws and regulations restrict the exercise of the rights to free expression and to access information. Article 500 of the country's Penal Code states that "anyone who undertakes any form of propaganda against the state...will be sentenced to between three months and one year in prison," and leaves "propaganda" undefined. Iran's Press Law of 1986 forbids censorship while at the same time it establishes a broad basis for the harsh punishment of content deemed inappropriate. Under Ahmadinejad, the judiciary has imposed increased restrictions of freedom of expression and on the press, and there is systemic suppression of much intellectual dissent.
Pro-reformist independent newspapers that are critical of governmental policies are targeted and banned from publishing. In April 2000, the Office of the Leader and the judiciary launched a campaign against the independent press, closing more than one hundred newspapers and journals since. Although, there remain a few independent daily newspapers, they practise 'self-censorship' and avoid contentious topics.
Many Iranian journalists and dissidents increasingly rely on the Internet to circumvent the crackdown on free expression in the print media, and the government controlled television and radio. Many of the opinions expressed on Iranian websites would never be voiced in the newspapers. Access to the Internet is growing and widespread; according to some estimates there are now 1,500 Internet cafés in Tehran alone.
However, the government has imprisoned online journalists, bloggers, and technical support staff to try to reign in free expression on the Web. According to Human Rights Watch, the state has blocked thousands of websites, including sites that criticize government policies or report stories the government does not wish to see published and it has sought to limit the spread of blogs by blocking popular websites that offer free publishing tools for blogs. Human Rights Watch also document how regulations promulgated by the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, stipulate that access service providers (ASPs) for the Internet in Iran "are required to provide filtering systems to prevent access to prohibited immoral and political sites". Measures taken recently aim to control access to political information and news on the Internet, resulting in increased targeting of journalists who publish on the Internet.
The Writers Prison Committee of International PEN has noted that book censorship in Iran has tightened dramatically. The state pressures independent publishers. The Ministry of Culture and Guidance denies publication and republication permits to control opposing voices. The Iranian authorities have blacklisted several thousand new and previously published works and the publishing industry is said to be in crisis. The rise in book censorship appears to be part of a widespread crackdown on free expression.
Journalists and writers face imprisonment if they voice opposition to the governmental authorities, or if they insult or criticise the Supreme Leader. The Ministry of Information has expanded surveillance of dissidents, human rights activists and journalists. Iran currently imprisons the highest number of journalists in the Middle East. The threat of serving time in prison has led a number of writers and journalists to leave Iran or to censor themselves.
High profile international PEN cases in Iran have included the arrest of academics and journalists after their attendance at an academic and cultural conference in Berlin entitled "Iran after the elections", which debated social and political reform in Iran. Akbar Ganji, influential author of the collected investigative journalism Dungeons and Ghosts, was arrested in April 2000 following his participation in the conference and sentenced to six years imprisonment; he served parts of his sentence in solitary confinement and underwent hunger strikes to protest at his treatment. Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi Eshkevari, a journalist and reformist cleric was arrested on 5 August 2000 after taking part in the conference. Held in solitary confinement and then tried behind closed doors in the Special Court of the Clergy where he was convicted of "defaming government officials in articles" and "starting a campaign against the system" among other charges, Eshkevari was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.
Sources: For further information, based on primary research, see the annual reports from Amnesty International (http://www.amnesty.org/), the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (http://www.cpj.org/), Reporters Without Borders (http://www.rsf.fr/) and the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (http://ifex.org/) . See also Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/). For more general information on Iran, see the Foreign and Commonwealth Office country profile (www.fco.gov.uk).
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