Tehran prosecutor warns internet news outlets

Report Source: Radio Zamaneh

Tehran Prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi warned internet news sites that they will be confronted by the law for "publishing lies and subverting public perception."

ISNA reports that Tehran prosecutor announced that Tehran's prosecutor's office will go after sites that "publish baseless news." He added that Ministry of Culture has announced that numerous active sites in Iran have not been registered and their operators are unidentified.

Government confrontation with news websites and weblogs has increased in the past five months in Iran since the start of election protests. During this time numerous sites and weblogs have been filtered and a number of journalists and bloggers have been arrested.

During the presidential elections, many social networks such as Facebook and photo and film swapping sites such as You Tube and Flickr were also filtered.

Yesterday Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Commander of Security Forces announced that "there is need for greater supervision over the internet." He claimed police efforts for the control of the internet have not been successful so far. He maintained: "Every time we have entered this scene, the media and individuals who show off as intellectuals attack and we step back."

Islamic Republic authorities have set up filtering technology since eight years ago to control the content of internet in Iran. A "Filtering Committee" comprised of members from the ministry of intelligence and culture as well as the national broadcasting agency, Seda va Sima charges the IT company with the specifics of the filtering.

Last December, the judiciary announced that they have launched a special court for computer and cyber crimes.