The products of globalisation have significantly undermined the process of “information management in countries where censorship is still part of everyday life.
Traditionally, the Islamic Republic has always interfered in the press. Human rights organizations have criticised the Iranian state for actively impeding freedom of expression and undermining platforms for social discourse.
However, the emergence of the internet as a global medium has challenged the state’s efforts to monitor the circulation of information. The internet is becoming a dominant tool to express socio-political views that fail to escape the filters of the mainstream media. Iran after Israel has the highest percentage of its population online in the region and it is estimated that over 7.5 million people are regular internet users in the country.
The Islamic Republic has been vigilant of the role of the internet and has taken measures to keep it under control. Iran is one of a small group of states with the most complex state-mandated filtering system in the world. The extensive filtering is enforced at a time of astonishing growth in internet usage with an extraordinary increase in Persian weblogs. It is ironic that the regime’s censorship mechanism relies heavily on sophisticated software packages developed in the US and then exported to Iran.
Since the emergence of Ahmadinejad as Iran’s sixth president, the restrictions on the internet have increased. The first step was blocking websites belonging to popular news agencies targeting Iranian audiences from Europe and North America. Hence readers’ access to sites like the BBC and New York Times was blocked. More recently, even popular websites such as Youtube, Facebook and wikipedia were banned.
The second step was to enforce legislation that would legally oblige all websites operating in Iran to register in order to obtain a government licence. This new policy makes Iran one of the only countries in the world were citizens must be granted official permission to launch a website.
Human rights organisations and NGOs responded by expressing their concern over further restriction on freedom of expression in Iran. This new law came into force while the government took measures to prevent access to high-speed internet connections to both private and corporate users. Currently internet connectivity does not exceed 128 kb/s.
The majority of MPs in the previous parliament shared Ahmadinejad’s concerns regarding “hostile online activities. Some hard-line MPs even called for the establishment of a special police force to deal with “threats relating to internet.
The current parliament has also taken harsh measures to enforce the politics of fear to prevent the promotion of ideas which may undermine the status quo. In July 2, 2008 parliament almost unanimously passed legislation to authorize the execution of people who actively disturb the psychological security of society .
This new law will apply to bloggers who publish “anti-Islamic material or endorse ideas incompatible with the ideological foundation of the regime. Mahmoud Salarkia , the deputy chief prosecutor of Tehran defended the new legislation and stated that “Those who are the enemies of the regime and the revolution would do anything to deviate the youth. Hence, people inside Iran who support their objectives deserve harsher punishment.
In response to the new law, the European Union issued a condemnation and stated that The bill makes a disproportionate link between the acts committed and the penalty imposed and sets out to brutally restrict the exercise of freedom of expression.
The new restrictions are coming into force, as Ahmadinejad’s foreign policy increasingly faces opposition. There is a correlation between the state’s foreign affairs and the restrictive approach to media and in particular the internet. As the uranium enrichment issue meets more opposition in the international arena, the limitations on external news sources increase. Iran’s foreign policy has some obvious domestic implications and so Tehran wants to monopolize the presentation and interpretation of ongoing events, hence maximizes efforts to constitute digital boundaries in order to minimize external influence on people’s understanding of foreign affairs.
By employing the mainstream media to gain legitimacy for his projects, Ahmadinejad often compares himself to Mosadiq, a popular nationalist leader who confronted the West to nationalize the Iranian oil industry in the 1950s. Therefore, he urges all social classes to support him and cope with the sanctions and unstable economy in order to achieve a goal that will supposedly benefit the nation. Thus, the government has no tolerance for any free platform that may promote an alternative interpretation of the situation.
However, the Republic’s attempts to control internet have proven unproductive. The experiences of online activities in Iran show that blocking websites and resorting to the politics of fear cannot guarantee the state’s monopoly over the internet for two simple reasons.
First, there is a question of realistic capability. Although Iran has banned thousands of websites, the regime remains insecure regarding “threats from internet, which only indicates that there is a limit to what the state can practically do to stop people accessing millions of other websites across the globe. As the government prevents access to certain online forums, thousands of new ones join the web everyday, rendering attempts to control access futile.
Secondly, the regime cannot keep up with new technologies. The most sophisticated software today will be obsolete tomorrow which means that people will always find new methods to challenge restrictions.
Afshin Shahiis a Cairo-based British Iranian PhD candidate of political philosophy specialized in Middle East affairs. Email: [email protected].
