Since 2005, the internet has been increasingly seen as a threat to “security, cultural, social and moral norms in the country,” as expressed by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Reza Taghipour.

This year, Iran has intensified its surveillance and crackdowns even further, causing disconnections and deliberately slowing connection speeds (which were not very fast to begin with). A few weeks ago in February 2012, the governmenttemporarily blocked access to SSL-encrypted sites, making it harder to use censorship circumvention tools. Access to free webmail services such as Gmail and Yahoo! has also been blocked for periods of time since the presidential elections in June 2009, making it difficult for many Iranian users who depend on these services for their daily communication needs.

The latest move to further restrict the internet is the plan to launch a national “clean” internet, which includes, among other things, the requirement for all Iranians to register their websites with the Ministry of Art and Culture, and the establishment of a national search engine and webmail service provided by the government.

The recent increase in censorship and plans for a national internet are particularly worrying for sexual rights activists who are rely on the internet for their advocacy. According to a sexual rights activist in Iran (who wishes to remain anonymous), “After such a long time of working on LGBT rights, we are only seeing some positive impact in this field in recent years. In my own experience as a gay person in Iran, I am only seeing discussions on sexual rights in the past year. We really owe the internet for this.”

Due to the existing government restrictions placed on education and mass media, the internet is one of the few key channels for the public to access information about their rights.

“People are very uninformed about their rights,” says one activist, “if it wasn’t for the internet, people wouldn’t be aware that police don’t have the right to be violent; that politicians can have two jobs; that religions (Bahà‘ís, Jews, Christians, etc.) are free to practice as long as they don’t advertise; and that the hijab is not mandatory by law and that police cannot dictate what people wear.”

Many fear that censoring the internet will also prevent Iran from moving forward and that the notion of freer society will die with the free and open internet.

But the national internet does carry some benefits. Iranian authorities have said that the average user would be allotted 10 mbps of bandwidth, compared to the 128 kbps that most Iranians currently have. It would also give Iranians access to sites like Youtube, even if it is a government-approved, Iranian Youtube. The reality is that the national internet won’t likely pose a problem for citizens who use theinternet for routine things like checking their bank accounts, emailing and chatting.

But the picture is much different for sexual rights activists, who will no longer be able to connect to each other or to network with other advocates outside the country:

“It is the end for people like us,” says one activist. “Many organisations who work on sexual rights and provide counselling, hotlines and support are either banned or not recognized by the government. Now external sites from outside of Iran will also be banned, likely as of May 2012.”

Activist communities are now afraid to speak out for fear of being imprisoned, or even sentenced to death). For many, the end of the open internet in Iran comes with a sense of powerlessness: “there isn’t much people can do to react to this. Those who protested the elections are still in jail, and for people like me, who are dependant on the internet, are left with no other choice than to leave Iran.”

Source: APC

They join 10 other nations on the campaign group's register of states that restrict net access, filter content and imprison bloggers.

India and Kazakhstan have also joined RWB's list of "countries under surveillance" because of concerns that they are becoming more repressive.

The body says 2011 was the "deadliest year" yet for so-called "netizens".

It says at least 199 arrests of internet campaigners were recorded over the year - a 31% increase on 2010.

It adds that China, followed by Vietnam and Iran currently hold the largest number of netizens in jail.

New entries

RWB said it had added Bahrain to its list after the death of Zakariya Rashid Hassan. It said the forum moderator had maintained a website focused on stories about his birthplace, al-Dair, ahead of his arrest on 9 April.

It said Mr Hassan was charged with disseminating false news and calling for the overthrow of his country's government before he died, six days after being detained.

RWB says the country's law authorities have also arrested other netizens, smeared free speech activists and disrupted communications at the time of demonstrations.

Bahrain's government expressed a number of concerns about the report, which it said failed to "present the reality of the situation" there.

Several positive steps had been taken towards reforming the media sector since the publication of a report by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) into last year's crackdown on anti-government protests, it said, including relaxing censorship and increasing the range of political opinions in the media.

In Belarus, the campaign group says, President Alexander Lukashenko's government has increased the number of blocked websites and arrested some bloggers while inviting others to "preventative conversations" with the police during which they are pressured not to cover protests.

It says the regime has also used Twitter to send messages designed to intimidate demonstrators. It adds that the country's main internet service provider has diverted users to sites containing malware when they tried to log into the Vkontakte social network.

Elsewhere RWB accuses China and Syria of hiring bloggers to troll sites containing posts from cyber-dissidents, and then flood the pages with messages supporting the governments.

It raises concern that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced plans to create a "clean" web with its own search engine and messaging service, and says Vietnam has attacked Catholic networks and campaigners trying to raise awareness about environmentally damaging bauxite mines.

Watch list

RWB said India had joined its "surveillance" list after stepping up internet monitoring efforts following 2008's Mumbai bombings. It claims that the country's national security policy undermines the protection of users' personal data.

Kazakhstan was added to the list after being said to have cut communications around the city of Zhanaozen during a riot and having introduced new "repressive internet regulations".

Australia remains on the register because of its government's efforts to introduce a mandatory web filtering system to block content deemed inappropriate, such as child pornography. RWB says it is concerned that the system would not be managed in a transparent matter.

France is also on the list because of its "three strikes" policy on illegal downloads which can lead to net access being suspended.

The organisation also notes that a blogger became Egypt's first political prisoner of the post-Mubarak era after Maikel Nabil Sanad was convicted for criticising the armed forces.

Although the UK does not make either of RWB's list, the body notes that the UN has raised concerns about its Digital Rights Bill aimed at defending copyright.

It also says that Blackberry's decision to assist the authorities without a prior court order during the London riots is "a worrying development".

RWB also highlights the role of firms which provide monitoring equipment and software to repressive regimes.

It says that western companies have been criticised for activities in Syria, Egypt and Libya when Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime was still in charge.

The organisation notes that the European Parliament has adopted a resolution supporting tougher export controls, and that a bill with a similar aim is being considered by US lawmakers.

Source: BBC News

Reporters Without Borders has updated its 2012 "Enemies of the Internet " list to include Bahrain and Belarus.

The updated list, which was released on Monday to mark what the organisation called "World Day Against Cyber-Censorship", still includes countries like China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia from the previous year.

The Paris-based non-governmental organisation that advocates freedom of the press said that in 2011 Internet users were "at the heart of the political changes in the Arab world and elsewhere".

In Bahrain, RWB said, the government "has bolstered its censorship efforts" in reaction to the pro-democracy uprising that began on February 14, 2011.

"Bahrain offers a perfect example of successful crackdowns, with an information blackout achieved through an impressive arsenal of repressive measures: exclusion of the foreign media, harassment of human rights defenders, arrests of bloggers and netizens (one of whom died behind bars), prosecutions and defamation campaigns against free expression activists, disruption of communications," the report said.

In Belarus, RWB said, "The Internet – a mobilisation and information platform – has received the full brunt of the authorities’ brutal crackdown on the opposition."

The report continued that "some 100 Belarusian journalists were interrogated in 2011 alone, and over 30 given prison terms".

Libya, where the government of Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in a violent revolt, was removed from the list of "countries under surveillance".

"In Libya, many challenges remain but the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime has ended an era of censorship," the report said.

Venezuela was also removed from that list, whereas India and Kazakhstan were added to it.

"On World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, we pay tribute to the ordinary citizens who often risk their lives or their freedom to keep us informed and to ensure that often brutal crackdowns do not take place without the outside world knowing," RWB said.

Source: AJE

There was no access to any foreign hosted websites for Iranian users on Sunday from 11:40pm in local time for less than an hour except Wikipedia and Bing search engine.

Users couldn’t access their Webmails and all SSL web address as well on Sat and Mon for all day long.

“Internet is a treat to IRI regime.” Intelligence service minister Mr Salehi said on Tue.

This assessment had many bad feedbacks from politicians in IRI parliament and the government itself.

“Internet is not a instrument of treat, Internet is the treat itself.” Deputy Minister of IRI Intelligence service said two days ago with no attendtion to all feedbacks from other politicians.

Many of authorities talked about having National Intranet instead of internet in Iran recently but none of them explained what the limitations are of “Halal internet” and “Clean Internet”.

“Connecting to internet should be as less as necessity” Ahmadi Moghdam the chief of IRI Police forces said. But he didn’t mention what “necessity point” is, neither.

Through all this all Iranians are worry about the internet situation in Iran because internet is the only way they can access to information free of censorship.

From Feb 9^th to Feb 13^th Gamil, Hotmail and Yahoo mail was out of reach in Iran.

Some of the IRI parliament politicians openly protested against this filtering.

Mr. Ahmad Tavakoli was one of them who talked to media about it.

“This kind of libertine censorship makes people to break the law and is charging government a lot of expenses” he said.

But official officers of Information Technology Ministry of Iran have different opinion.

“We are working on a plan called en bloc filtering to block the inner and foreigners website on a plan which can solve all the problems we have right now with the websites filtering!” Mr. Mohammadreza Aghamiri (official filtering officer in filtering department) said two days ago.

They will present this plan “en bloc filtering” very soon as they said.

“Blocking web mails (Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail) is not happened by a mistake.” He added.

Reason of the filtering of web mails which is mentioned in news was dread of spy!

Especially since Google brought out its new privacy policy and mentioned information of users are used for advertising and business purposes, IRI government has a very clear reason to block Gmail.

IRI government is trying to build up its own web mail and search engine (take a look at en.iran.ir) but not successful yet.

Dealing with internet is one of the most important issues in Iran since all media inside is under control and cannot publish free information. Most of activists uses internet to publish news and information free of censor.

“Internet is an enemy to IRI government” IRI intelligence service minister Mr. Heidar Moslehi said.

“Google is an employee of CIA” he mentioned.

The official officers of Information technology ministry declared that they are working on National Intranet instead of internet for Iranian users.

Any kinds of activities result in porn content e.g. website developing, blogging, photography etc are illegal in Iran. This kind of pressure on people are invigorated since Gerdab group* established.

Most of the pornographic websites are stopped working. Many of their developers and even their members are arrested and bunch of TV reports are broadcasted of them.

But the Execution punishment to Saeed Malekpour which issued recently through Islamic Revolution Court, attracted the world society concerns.

Saeed Malekpour is a 35-year old Iranian-Canadian student who came back to Iran on Oct 2008 to visit his family but arrested because of developing pornographic contents and issued to death due to spreading illegal content against religion.

Censoring porn as many other topics are taking place since IRI government began to “clean” the web contents for Iranian internet users.

By the meantime Iran is the first country of execution punishment country in the world!

* Gerdab group is a group of hackers employed by Iran’s government to find developers of websites who broadcast contents that IRI government says they are illegal.

Mark Thompson wrote in a blog that the BBC had seen "disturbing new tactics", including the targeting of family members of those working outside Iran.

Last week, the sister of a BBC Persian staff member was detained and held in solitary confinement at a Tehran jail.

Iran accused the BBC of inciting unrest after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

BBC Persian broadcast online videos and interviewed protesters, who described deaths, injuries and arbitrary arrests carried out by security forces.

'Long arm of repression'

In his blog, Mr Thompson wrote that for BBC Persian staff, "interference and harassment from the Iranian authorities has become a challenging fact of life".

"In recent months, we have witnessed increased levels of intimidation alongside disturbing new tactics," he added.

"This includes an attempt to put pressure on those who work for BBC Persian outside Iran, by targeting family members who still live inside the country."

This has left many BBC Persian staff too afraid to return to the country, even to visit sick or elderly relatives”

Mark ThompsonBBC Director General

Mr Thompson revealed that last week the sister of a BBC Persian member of staff was arrested and held in solitary confinement on unspecified charges at Evin Prison in the capital, Tehran.

"Although she has now been released on bail, her treatment was utterly deplorable and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

Human Rights Watch said that at one point, a man claiming to be the relative's interrogator at Evin telephoned the staff member in London and offered to release her in return for information about the BBC.

Mr Thompson said staff had also faced false accusations of sexual assault, drug trafficking and financial crimes.

In recent months, a number of relatives of BBC Persian staff had been detained for short periods of time by the Iranian authorities and urged to get their relatives in London to either stop working for the BBC, or to "co-operate" with Iranian intelligence officials, Mr Thompson said.

In other instances, passports of family members have been confiscated, preventing them from leaving Iran, he added.

"This has left many BBC Persian staff too afraid to return to the country, even to visit sick or elderly relatives."

He said some had also had their Facebook and email accounts hacked, and been subjected to a "consistent stream of false and slanderous accusations... in the official Iranian media, ranging from allegations of serious sexual assault, drug trafficking, and criminal financial behaviour".

Some reports claimed they had converted from Islam to Christianity or Bahaism - potentially a capital offence in Iran as it is considered to be apostasy.

Human Rights Watch's Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said the actions of the Iranian authorities suggested they were attempting to silence reporters and the BBC, and were sending "a message that the government's long arm of repression can extend well beyond borders".

UK Middle East Minister Alistair Burt said Iranian officials' "deplorable tactics illustrate again the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, and the desperation of the Iranian regime to silence any independent voices".

Source: BBC News

A court order requiring the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block access to pornographic websites, upheld by a Tunis appeal court in August 2011, revived the debate about censorship. As the ATI had neither the financial resources nor technical capacity to establish a filtering system, it did not comply and referred the case to the Court of Cassation, the country's highest appeal court, which is due to issue a ruling in the coming days.

If the order is confirmed, the ATI will be forced to censor online content in accordance with a complaint brought by a group of lawyers calling for the blocking of pornographic content that poses a threat to minors and Muslim values. Although supposedly independent, the ATI would be obliged to implement censorship on behalf of the courts.

“It is legitimate to want to protect children from online porn, but this is not the ATI's job and it does not have the authority either,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We favour the provision of parental control tools by Internet Service Providers rather than a return to online censorship with the ATI acting as censor, a role for which it is completely unsuited because it is, on paper, independent.”

The press freedom organization added: “If the courts confirm the restoration of online filtering, we fear that what starts with the filtering of pornographic web content will subsequently be extended to other kinds of content.”

Risks

The Court of Cassation's ruling could have serious consequences. Reporters Without Borders points out that online filtering carries the following risks:

TECHNICAL

Aside from the obvious impact it can have on connection speeds, content filtering of any kind entails a real danger of “overblocking.” Flaws in the filtering mechanisms can result in the blocking of news and information websites that are not targeted. Articles about health issues, for example, could be blocked by an automated filtering system intended to block porn. Furthermore, censorship has never deterred the many Tunisians who are familiar with censorship circumvention methods.

LEGAL

It is disturbing that judges at both the lower and appeal court level felt that they could offload their judicial authority on to the ATI, asking this agency to act as an Internet policeman and to censor content. It is the job of the courts to achieve a balance between published content and the rights of third parties. Even if the state is a shareholder, this power cannot be delegated to a company or agency, especially one whose role is purely technical.

Reporters Without Borders is not opposed to all forms of Internet regulation but it must be carried out in a way that conforms to international standards and respects the right to online freedom of expression. Measures must be taken to guarantee Net neutrality, the protection of personal data and online access as a fundamental right.

FINANCIAL

The substantial financial outlays required to restore filtering mechanisms should not be neglected. They could force the ATI to request restoration of the subsidy of 2 million dinars (1 million euros) that it used to get from the old regime to cover censorship services, a subsidy it gave up immediately after the revolution. The agency would again cease to be independent of the government.

The consumer price of Internet connections will also go up if content filtering is restored. The cost of installing filtering equipment and software will automatically be passed on by Internet Service Providers to their customers.

Tunisia's president, the president of its constituent assembly and many constituent assembly members have all publicly opposed the restoration of Internet filtering in Tunisia because they are aware of the dangers (watch the video ).

A recent report by Frank La Rue, the UN special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression, recommended that the flow of information online should be restricted only in specific, exceptional and limited circumstances, and in accordance with international standards. The report also said that the right to freedom of expression should be the norm and that restrictions should be the exception, and not the other way round.

Instead of resorting to the old regime's censorship methods, the Tunisian authorities should send their citizens a strong signal by enshrining Internet access as a fundamental right in the new constitution, lifting restrictions on Internet companies, and eliminating the censorship.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders condemns physical attacks on journalists with the state news agency IRNA and state-owned daily Iran, the arrests of several of these journalists and the closure of the privately-owned daily Etemad, all within the past three days.

IRNA headquarters was raided yesterday by police and officials from the Tehran prosecutor's office with the aim of arresting its director, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, just as he was giving a news conference to protest against the one-year jail sentence and three-year ban on working as a journalist that a Tehran court had imposed on him the day before.

Javanfekr is also a media advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is currently embroiled in power struggle with the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei,

The raid was conducted in a violent manner and the police did not hesitate to use tear gas on the IRNA journalists who were there to support Javanfekr. According to an IRNA statement, “the director of the newspaper Iran, Mosayb Naimi, and several journalists were wounded or arrested” during the raid. Naimi was released hours later. It is not yet known what happened to the other detained journalists.

Javanfekr was himself detained and handcuffed, but was released following President Ahmadinejad's direct intervention.

A court sentenced Javanfekr to a year in prison on 20 November in connection with a controversial supplement about the chador that the newspaper Iran, which Javanfekr used to run, published on 13 August.

A two-month suspension was meanwhile imposed on Etemad on 19 November because its latest issue including an interview in which Javanfekr was very critical of many of Ayatollah Khamenei's close supporters including prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani.

In the interview, he protested against the harassment of certain close Ahmadinejad supporters, saying: “Keeping prisoners in individual cells is forbidden under Iranian law.” He also said the Ahmadinejad administration was not responsible for the mistreatment of detainees and did not control the intelligence ministry. Now one of Ahmadinejad's staunchest supporters, Javanfekr used to be a senior intelligence ministry official and a member of Ayatollah Khamenei's office in the 1990s.

This is the second time that Etemad has been suspended in the past 20 months. Previously suspended on 1 March 2010 on the orders of the Press Licensing and Surveillance Commission, an offshoot of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, it was allowed to resume publishing on 19 June 2011. Edited by Elyass Hazrati, a former parliamentarian and Revolutionary Guard, commander, Etemad supports the reformists.

“Etemad's crime was to publish comments by a presidential adviser, a government official, criticizing other government officials,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The judicial system ordered this newspaper's closure for ‘publishing false information.' Although it was the head of the government news agency IRNA who accused the government and former officials of torture, it is the reformist newspaper that is punished. Independent newspapers and journalists are the real victims of this power struggle within the leadership.”

Rahman Gahremanpour Benab, a pro-Ahmadinejad journalist who worked for Hamshahri Diplomatic and Tehran e Emrooz and as a researcher at a government strategy centre, was arrested on 1 June on a spying charge and was placed in Tehran's Evin prison. He was arrested at the same time as three Turkish university academics who were freed 13 days later. There has been no news of Benab since his arrest.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

 Israel's communications ministry says that it has ordered the shutdown of an Israeli-Palestinian radio station, saying it is broadcasting into Israel illegally.

The ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it had shut down the dovish Kol Hashalom station, which has been operating since 2004.

The station's Israeli director Mossi Raz notes that the transmitter is located in the West Bank, not Israel, and thus should not be under Israeli authority. He says the station will go to court to try to get back on the air.

Critics say the move is part of a broader trend in Israel to curb freedom of expression.

In recent days, Cabinet ministers and lawmakers have pushed ahead proposed legislation that would block most foreign government funding for dovish groups.

Source: AP