Authorities block BBC's Farsi-language website

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the Iranian government's censorship of the BBC's Farsi-language website, which has been inaccessible within Iran since 18 January. Iranians are being deprived of an independent and very popular source of news, the press freedom organisation said, condemning the government's Internet filtering, which has been stepped up in recent months. The authorities have offered no explanation for the BBC site's sudden inaccessibility. When Iranians try to connect to the site, they now get a message saying, “Access to the site refused.” The BBC's English-language site is still accessible. The BBC said it had contacted the Iranian government to demand an end to the filtering. The Farsi-language site has become one of the most important for Farsi speakers since its creation in 2001. It is also the BBC foreign-language site that receives the most visitors. Nearly 30 million connections were registered in December, half of them from within Iran. Many Iranian Internet users have asked the BBC how they can get round censorship. Reporters Without Borders points out that there is a Farsi version of its Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, which offers technical advice on how to circumvent this kind of filtering. It is available on its website at: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15050 ------------- Create your blog with Reporters without borders: www.rsfblog.org