In 1988...

Following the founding of the Islamic Republic a system of control and censorship of the media was imposed in order to prevent ‘counter-revolutionary and non-Islamic influences’.

In 1980, following Ayatollah Khomeini’s famous ‘break their pens’ speech, hizbollahis attacked the editorial offices of several newspapers. Journalists were subjected to arrest and harassment, and labelled as agents of communism, imperialism and fascism. The hizbollahis also attacked theatres and beat up actors.

The Baha’is are considered to be heretics, and as such maddur ad-damm, or those whose blood must be shed, instead of being considered members of a different faith. Before 1979, there were an estimated 300,000 Baha’is in Iran, but since the revolution, and especially since the faith was banned in 1983, many thousands have fled the country... Some 300 Baha’is are reported to have been executed because of their religion. Read more...

In 2008...

Freedom of expression is severely restricted in Iran. Threats to the legitimacy of the State or to Islam, upon which the State is founded, are swiftly quashed, often with serious consequences. Although freedom of expression has been subject to the political twists and turns that have marked the 28 years of the Islamic Republic, Iran is currently ‘in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns’, as noted by New York Times journalist Neil MacFarquhar. Increasing pressure from the USA has enabled the Iranian government to justify a tougher stance on dissent by appealing to ‘national security’. With the international focus on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the spotlight has been deflected from the systematic violation of free expression in the country.

The revolution that swept Iran in 1979 inaugurated a system of governance anchored in Sharia (Islamic law). Under the guidance of the head of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, a new constitution was drafted that decreed the unelected Supreme Leader the highest power in the country. Although the Constitution supports an elected President and Parliament, it also provides for an unelected body, the Council of Guardians, as electoral and constitutional monitor. Effectively, the unelected bodies in Iran predominate while the elected ones provide a democratic façade. The Constitution permits political parties providing they do not undermine the regime.

By the mid-1990s, the revolutionary zeal and bloodshed of the early years had yielded to the aspirations of a new elite, who championed political reform and economic liberalisation. This resulted in the election of reformist Mohammad Khatami in a landslide victory with approximately 70 per cent of the vote. Mohammad Khatami’s period in office was accompanied by an easing of the restrictions on some freedoms. The wave of optimism lasted until the 2000 parliamentary elections, when reformists won the majority of seats. This triumph, however, was the final straw for conservatives whose severe response has lasted to this day. Although Mohammad Khatami was re-elected in 2001 with 78 per cent of the vote, his conciliatory approach and inability to bring about change led to him being viewed as ineffective. Hard-liners seized this opportunity to consolidate their position and the Council of Guardians rejected the majority of reformist candidates for the February 2004 parliamentary elections.

The current political climate has been shaped by the June 2005 presidential election, won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative victory that has eradicated the last vestiges of reformist power and embedded the hard-line position. The election is widely acknowledged as having been engineered as the Council of Guardians rejected all but eight of the 1,014 presidential candidates, and key State figures urged the electorate to do their ‘Sharia duty’ and vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Faced with another potential reformist electoral victory, putting forward Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allowed the conservatives to thwart the reformists and gain control of another of the State’s power centres. The Islamic Republic has since gained a new lease of life, and the repression that has followed has prompted many to compare the new era to the tyranny of the early revolutionary years.

Legal and Regulatory Framework

‘The media’s role is demarcated by the Constitution and the Press Law, which dictate what the press must strive to achieve as well as what it must avoid. The vaguely worded laws pose a huge challenge for journalists, editors and publishers attempting to interpret them.’

Both television and radio are tightly controlled by the State-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). According to the IRIB website, there are currently eight television and nine radio channels. Although these cover a range of subjects, they have an overwhelmingly religious focus. A Freedom House report reveals that despite having over 20 daily newspapers, television is the primary source of information for more than 80 per cent of the population. A prohibition on all satellite antennae was introduced in 1995. Although this is not consistently enforced, there are sporadic crackdowns. Both incoming foreign satellite and radio channels are frequently jammed.

The media’s role is demarcated by the Constitution and the Press Law, which dictate what the press must strive to achieve as well as what it must avoid. The vaguely worded laws pose a huge challenge for journalists, editors and publishers attempting to interpret them. In addition, the criminalisation of defamation discourages legitimate criticism. Unsurprisingly, self-censorship is ubiquitous. The strict licensing requirements for all publications present a further obstacle. Those who fail to comply with these laws face excessively harsh penalties, including incarceration, flogging and suspension or banning of publications.

New Technologies

In April 2003, Iran became the first country to imprison a blogger: Sina Motallebi was arrested for ‘undermining national security through artistic activity’. More than 20 bloggers have since been arrested, all but one of whom has been released. Arash Sigarchi, charged with undermining national security for his blog criticising the government, is still serving a three-year prison sentence.

OpenNet Initiative (ONI) found Iran to have the most extensive filtering regime of any country it investigated in a 2007 study. One Iranian official boasted that 10 million websites had been blocked in Iran and that the judiciary ordered 1,000 sites to be blocked every month. In general, sites are blocked that pertain to dissent of any kind, political reform, criticism of the State, pornography, human rights, and issues relating to the rights of women, minorities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

According to ONI, the official stance on Internet activity has hardened since 2006. On 11 October 2006, Internet services at a speed higher than 128 kilobytes per second (broadband) were declared illegal, purportedly to prevent the download of foreign material such as music and film, as well as to deter political coordination. On 26 November 2006, a document regulating control of Internet activity was released by the government. The directive decreed illegal all websites and blogs without a licence from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG) seems to be most used in English. It was subsequently announced that all owners of websites and blogs were required to register their details by 1 March 2007. In February 2007, the online journal Baztab.com was the first site to be blocked under these regulations. It had reportedly failed to apply for a licence, disclosed State secrets and other confidential military information, insulted government officials and published false news.

Repression of Media Workers

Since President Ahmadinejad’s election, government harassment of human rights defenders, students, women’s rights advocates and intellectuals has intensified. Following a recent government crusade to ‘counter public immorality’, thousands of Iranians have been arbitrarily arrested for their ‘deviant’ behaviour (including homosexual conduct) or dress. The 2007 annual spring clampdown on un-Islamic dress was carried out with more fervour than usual, with the country’s police chief boasting that 150,000 people had been detained.

In August 2006, the Center for Defense of Human Rights, led by Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was declared illegal. The centre has provided pro bono legal advice to journalists, dissidents and students facing prosecution for exercising their basic rights such as freedom of expression. In recent months, Iranian officials have confiscated, on national security grounds, the passports of activists preparing to leave for international conferences.

In October 2006, Human Rights Watch reported that 54 people were allowed to register as students after agreeing to sign statements promising that they would abstain from peaceful political activities. In May 2007, at least eight students at Tehran’s Amir Kabir University – the site of protests against President Ahmadinejad – were arrested following articles in student newspapers insinuating that no one, including the Prophet Mohammed and the Supreme Leader, is infallible. Between July 2005 and mid-2007, 24 students were reported to have been incarcerated for their political activities.

‘The 2007 annual spring clampdown on un-Islamic dress was carried out with more fervour than usual, with the country’s police chief boasting that 150,000 people had been detained.’

In March 2007, more than 30 women’s rights advocates were arrested on International Women’s Day, five of whom were sentenced to prison terms of up to four years. They were accused of endangering national security by launching a campaign to gather more than a million signatures in support of the removal of all laws discriminating against women.

Other groups of activists and intellectuals have been in jeopardy since February 2006, when the USA unveiled its US$75 million operation to promote democracy in Iran. Eight thousand non-governmental organisations have been forced to verify their independence from the USA and three Iranian-US dual nationals, accused of espionage, were arrested. The three are: Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kian Tajbaksh, an urban planning consultant; and Ali Shakeri, a board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California, Irvine. Two other dual nationals, Iranian-US journalist Parnaz Azima who works for Radio Farda (a US-backed station based in Europe) and French-Iranian journalism student Mehrnoush Solouki, have been barred from leaving Iran.

Media Censorship

The State-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) meticulously scrutinises all news before it is published to ensure that it meets government requirements. In addition, every week the Supreme National Security Council sends a list of banned subjects to all newspapers. More than 200 independent newspapers and magazines were established during the era of Mohammad Khatami. Following the reformist success in the 2000 parliamentary elections, however, the hard-line judiciary, led by Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi, closed more than a hundred reformist newspapers and jailed scores of journalists. Particularly notable was the imprisonment of journalist Akbar Ganji in April 2000 for six years, after he wrote a book implicating senior officials in a chain of murders of dissidents and intellectuals.

Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s accession, press persecution has intensified. Reporters Without Borders ranked Iran 162 out of 168 countries in its 2006 Press Freedom Index, and reported that 38 journalists were arrested in 2006 for being critical of the State and a dozen media outlets were censored.

Three journalists were detained in 2007, including Mohammad Kabovand, editor of a Kurdish weekly closed down in 2004 and co-founder of a Kurdish human rights organisation; Said Matinpour of an Azeri-language weekly; and Mohammad Hassan Fallahieh, a journalist with the Arabic-language television and radio broadcaster Al-Alam, who was sentenced to three years in prison for espionage.

Art Censorship

Cultural expression in Iran has regressed since the comparatively productive spell during the era of Mohammad Khatami. All forms of cultural expression are scrutinised by the MCIG before official authorisation for publication or exhibition is granted. Although books have always required approval for publication, Mohammad Sepanlou, a poet and co-founder of Iran’s Writer’s Association, was reported in mid-2007 as saying that the number of books published had halved in the previous five years. Published books are being denied licences for reprint. In addition, licences granted for films, music albums, concerts and theatre productions have dramatically reduced in number. The current government has also clamped down on all foreign cultural products, including music and film. Solo female singers and dancers continue to be banned.

Censorship of Particular Groups

Discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities in Iran has been the source of unrest over the past few years. Uprisings during 2005 and 2006 by Iranian Arabs, Kurds and Azerbaijanis have been met by violence from security forces. During these episodes, dozens of protesters have been killed, hundreds wounded and scores arrested, including journalists reporting on the events. Local language newspapers have been shut down.

The Baha’i community continues to be persecuted and cannot participate in public worship or pursue religious activities. According to the chief representative of the Baha’is community to the UN, more than 125 Baha’is have been arrested since 2005. In February 2006, over 1,000 Sufis were arrested in Qom after peacefully protesting against an injunction to vacate their place of worship. The following month, 52 Sufis were sentenced to a year’s imprisonment, flogging and a fine. In August 2006, Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani ruled that Sufism was ‘null and void’.

Homosexuality in Iran is anathema and those found engaging in homosexual activity face flogging or the death penalty. In November 2005, two men, Mokhtar N and Ali A, were publicly hanged for crimes related to homosexuality. In April 1992, Dr Ali Mozafarian, a Sunni Muslim leader, was executed after being found guilty on charges of espionage and sodomy. Two years later, a dissident writer, Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani, was charged with several crimes, including espionage and homosexual activity. Public discussion about LGBT issues, either in society or the press, is prohibited unless negative, and no organisation or political party that supports LGBT rights is permitted.