Two cyber-dissidents jailed, 5 million websites censored

Organisation:

RSF_en

Reporters Without Borders condemns online journalist Shahnaz Gholami's arrest at her Tehran home on 9 November without any official reason being given. Her arrest came just a few days before a publication that supports the president called the Internet a “tool of subversion.”

Reporters Without Borders condemns online journalist Shahnaz Gholami's arrest at her Tehran home on 9 November without any official reason being given. Her arrest came just a few days before a publication that supports the president called the Internet a “tool of subversion.” “Gholami is the second cyber-journalist currently detained and we fear there could be a major crackdown,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The authorities no longer hide the fact they see most news and information channels as threats to Iran's sovereignty. We call for the release of all detained cyber-dissidents.” The editor of the Azar Zan (http://azarwomen.blogfa.com/) blog, Gholami was already sentenced on 20 September to six months in prison by a revolutionary court in the northwestern city of Tabriz on a charge of “publicity against the Islamic Republic,” but she was still free pending the outcome of her appeal, for which no date has so far been set. A member of the Association of Women Journalists, Gholami became prominent as a result of her role in the women's rights movement. She was detained for three weeks in August 2007 for criticising the police crackdown on demonstrations in various cities in Iranian Azerbaijan. She previously spent five years in prison in the 1980s because of her political activities. Theologian and online journalist Mojtaba Lotfi was arrested on 8 October for a posting a sermon by a well-known opponent of Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei online. The sermon, by Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for saying Iran was “the world's freest country” (http://www.amontazeri.com/farsi/default.asp). The 17 November issue of Sobh Sadegh, the official publication of the Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile has an article accusing the United States of online imperialism. “The US government has massively attacked the opinions of young Iranians and the world population for its own interests (...) thanks to various means of communication,” the article says, going on to name CNN, BBC, Fox News, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe (which broadcasts to former Soviet countries), Agence France Presse, AP, New York Times, Washington Post and the Yahoo! and Google search engines. The Iranian parliament's justice commission decided on 3 November, when ratifying certain articles of a “cyber-crime” bill, to establish a new committee for online filtering. The government has, since 2003, had a committee dedicated to maintaining a blacklist of websites regarded as “illegal.” They currently include YouTube, Facebook and Orkut. The Tehran attorney-general's adviser said on 19 November that the authorities were responsible for filtering out “five million websites.” At the same time, parliament is currently in the process of adopting a 2 July bill under which creating websites that promote “corruption, prostitution or apostasy” would be punishable by death. Iran is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Enemies of the Internet.” The warrant for Gholami's arrest gives the following reasons (in Farsi) for her arrest:

“Articles were found at her home that jeopardise national security.” “The accused clearly stated that she posted these articles on her blog, accessible to everyone.”

Published on 20.11.2008