Press Release -
Issued by BBC
World Service Press Office
Access to BBC Persian.com - the BBC's international news website and the biggest internet
site in the Persian language - is being blocked within Iran at the request of
the authorities, the BBC has announced today (Tuesday, January 24).
Initial assessments of the level of traffic to the site within
Iran indicate that they have dropped substantially on normal traffic levels over
the last three days since reports of the country-wide blocking
began.
The BBC's international online news services in the English
language remain unaffected. BBC World Service radio broadcasts in both Persian
and English are being received by audiences in Iran as normal.
BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman said: "BBC
Persian.com is a major source of news for Iranians, and has the biggest impact
of any online site or newspaper in Persian. We are very concerned at this action
and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted
source of impartial and editorially independent news and information. We
shall be making representations to the Iranian authorities with a view to
reinstating access to our service for all Iranians.
"The appetite among Iranians to know more about what's going
on – both in Iran and abroad – has never been greater," he says. "Online is an
important part of life in modern Iran; there is a hugely active and engaged
online community. The country is a world leader in terms of the proportion of
the population engaged in 'blogging'. Many people in Iran have contacted us to
tell us they believe the quality of information and debate in the country will
be much poorer following this action"
BBC Persian.com receives around 30 million page impressions
per month. It is the most popular of the BBC's non-English language news
websites. It is estimated that Iran has seven million internet users and
BBC Persian.com attracts around one third of all users in the
country.
The BBC has been broadcasting radio programmes in the Persian
language to Iran for over 65 years, its Persian internet site started in
2001.
