03 September 2008

“Heretic” Bloggers Risk Execution Under Iran’s New Restrictions

Latest threats come after years of fruitless attempts to control the Web

Iranian bloggers are preparing for the latest round in their long struggle with the authorities over Internet freedom.

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington – In its latest pressure tactic against Iranian bloggers and text-messagers, Iran’s government has declared blogs, texting, social networking sites and, more generally, the Internet “destructive,” “tools of media warfare” and more dangerous to the public “than addiction.” It also is threatening to charge some bloggers with heresy, which could carry a death sentence.

Iran’s revolutionary government has been fighting its battle to control public information on the Web for years, according to an Iranian journalist and blogger who now lives in Canada after a brush with Iranian law and asked not to be identified.

“They have used several ways to create restrictions or to suppress bloggers and different Web sites; however, they have not succeeded,” the blogger told America.gov.

Suppression of free speech on the Internet by oppressive regimes scattered across the globe is a concern among democracies worldwide. Through its annual human rights reports, the State Department has criticized Internet censorship in Burma, China, Cuba, Iran and other countries. In 2006 it also established the Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT) to address challenges to free expression and the free flow of information on the Web. (See “State Summary of Global Internet Freedom Task Force.”)

Iran boasts one of the most active blogospheres in the world, with 700,000 blogs, approximately 100,000 of which are updated regularly. Data from the Telecommunication Company of Iran also show that Iranians sent about 21 million text messages every day in 2007.

Under the guise of protecting the Iranian people from “dangerous” online material such as pornography, the Majlis (Iranian parliament) has proposed legislation that associates bloggers with violent criminals and proposed a committee to “confront bloggers and those who have Internet sites, and control them -- if necessary to filter them, or otherwise open a case and turn them over to judicial authorities for arrest,” the blogger said.

“They in fact want to create a preventive measure within families. And on the other hand, they have brought up the subject of execution for bloggers – under the claim of heresy or publishing material that would lead and encourage corruption and prostitution,” the blogger said. The crime of heresy can be interpreted very broadly by the authorities.

“If I don’t write anything except poetry in my Weblog, and [if] I write a poem like ‘I shall become God myself,’ the punishment for that would be execution. And in this way we will witness … death sentences in the near future,” the blogger said.

IRAN’S RESILIENT BLOGOSPHERE RESISTS GOVERNMENT CONTROL

This is only the government’s latest move to control Iran’s active blogosphere. A string of failed attempts began in 1999 with filtering efforts.

After those initial efforts proved unsuccessful, the government began targeting the bloggers themselves in 2002, arresting first those who were also involved with cinema production, and then individuals (like this blogger) who also worked as journalists.

“In 2004-2005 they detained about 20 to 30 bloggers and Weblog owners, tortured them, and caused them trouble, so that others would be afraid and think twice,” the blogger said. “However, this issue led to an increase in the number of Weblogs and bloggers.”

Stage 3, begun after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005, saw the Iranian government itself enter the fray with its own Web sites and massive funding for the sites of groups closely allied with its policies. “However, they don’t have anything new to say,” the blogger said. “[Y]ou come and run 10,000 Weblogs where all of them say everything is fine, while the truth out there shows something else. Therefore, they failed on this stage as well.”

Next came a mixture of arrests and new filtering technology, with somewhat absurd consequences such as the filtering of the word “woman” while arresting many women bloggers. By using filter breakers, legions of bloggers made it impossible for the government to keep up.

In 2005, the Ministry of Islamic Guidance also announced a plan to register all blogs and Web sites, requiring full names, addresses and telephone numbers.  But after only one month, the ministry admitted that only 5,000 of around 100,000 sites had complied and the official who had proposed the registration was forced to resign.

The blogger said Iran’s government is motivated by the desire to ultimately convert the country’s Internet into an Intranet not only to “disconnect communication between inside the country and abroad,” but also to “channelize” access in each region of the country to hinder news of political protests, workers strikes and other problems or developments in the provinces that could motivate others to take action.

“[T]he same is true for women, meaning for example if the women in Tehran are going to have a gathering, they want them to have the gathering and [then] they will suppress it, arrest them, etc. They don’t want there to be a domino effect, and chain reaction” around the country.

But the Iranian blogger predicted that the government’s actions against Internet freedom ultimately will fail, and pointed to unsuccessful efforts to stifle other news sources.

“[C]onsider radio, consider television, even video that they wanted to confront with in the 80s and they did not succeed,” the blogger said. In 1995, a plan was submitted to the Majlis to confront the threat of satellite television. “Right now they go and collect satellite antennas from people’s houses, but this plan has practically failed because people continue to have their satellites and their numbers are increasing daily.”

In the meantime, the struggle between Iranian bloggers and their government will continue, and the increased pressure may end up motivating just as many or more to engage in blogging than the number who will be deterred.

“This game is going on like a cat-and-mouse game,” the blogger said.