The Iranian media has a number of press policies that while they may be considered restrictive compared to ‘western’ concepts cannot be called draconian. The media functions fall under Article 24 of their constitution which says that while, “publications and the press have freedom of expression,” they cannot express views which can be considered, “detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public.” There is also the Press Law of 1986, which was updated in 2000, that deals with what topics the media can or cannot discuss, for instance it should not “promote subjects which might damage the foundation of the Islamic Republic,” “propagate luxury and extravagance,” or which, “offends the leader of the Revolution or recognised religious authorities.” And if the media violates this the offending journalist can be subjected to months of jail time, fines or lashings. Usually when writing about the functions of the press, we have things like objectivity, truth and other ethical objectives, the Press Law in Iran adds another one where the media is required to “propagate and promote genuine Islamic culture and sound ethical principles.”
Apart from this, the conservative Islamic Revolutionary Court has the authority to monitor the print media and revoke licences of newspapers and magazines if they find it guilty of publishing material which is either “anti-religious,” or “against national interests”. According to a UNHCR report, Iran has shut down nearly 100 publications since the year 2000. Journalists in Iran are also required to register with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Things were relatively better before the 2009 protests, where before the government usually withheld official subsidies to journalists critical of the government along with it being common practice for journalists who covered human rights issues to do short prison stints. But post 2009, the situation has worsened where now authorities directly shut down magazines, papers, journals to stifle criticism, it has made it increasingly difficult for foreign journalists to get access to the country and often times they are expelled altogether, the journalists live in fear of being arrested and the government often targets them by going after their homes, property and family.
In its December 2011 report Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has named Iran the world’s worst jailer of Journalists. It has surpassed China which has been on the top of the list since it has 42 journalists incarcerated on charges ranging from “membership in illegal groups,” “pawns of the west,” “spreading lies,” “being anti-religion,” and “against national interests.” In its report on Sexual Violence CPJ also points out that the use of rape to ‘humiliate’ and ‘control detainees’ has been widely documented inspiring fear in the minds of both female and male journalists.
In Iran, journalism is considered an ‘anti-state’ activity. Many journalists have been imprisoned with impunity and most of them don’t even get a chance to defend themselves. Many of the journalists still languish in jail, those who fear imminent arrest have left the country, some have been released on outrageously high amount of bail money, some have been subjected to lashes for their articles and many still have been given life sentences. If the journalists want to be released they are often pressurised into publicly claiming that they are repentant for all their actions and wrong about what they wrote or said. Most of the media is in some form or another controlled by the state and 80% of Iranians have access to only state run media outlets; the journalists who work for these official or semi-official outlets are given specific instructions on the kind of angle they can give to their news and failing which they can be suspended for three months.
Throughout modern Iranian history there have been periods where the ‘reformist’ newspapers and publications have flourished and one such time was under President Mohammed Khatami’s rule. According to Reporters Without Borders, following Khatamis victory there was an ‘explosion of reformist newspapers’ and reporters were given greater ‘latitude to cover even controversial state matters.’ But this period was quite short lived as in the year 2000, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a crackdown on these reformist publications labelling them as anti-Iranian and aides of US and Israel which led to most of these publications shutting down.
In the year 2010 attempts were made by 36 parliamentarians who supported President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by signing a bill under which detained government opponents would be regarded as “mohreb” (enemies of God) who will be executed “within a maximum of five days” of their arrest hoping to make the life of journalists even more dangerous and harder than it already is.[1]
As of now there are nearly 300 newspapers in Iran, but only a few national dailies and most of these are either connected ideologically to political parties, factions or politicians and are also funded by the same. For instance, the most widely circulated conservative paper Kayhan, is owned by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; even reformist papers like E’temmad (Trust) is licensed to a member of the Majlis – Elias Hazrati. The Iranian government itself publishes three English-language newspapers – Tehran Times, Iran Daily and Iran News.
For the people of Iran, Television and Radio are the most important sources of news but the government exercises complete control over the two. The heads of all TV channels and radio channels are appointed by the Supreme Leader; there are no private or independent broadcasters in Iran. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) controls all internal and external broadcasting, Press TV which is widely known also falls under the control of IRIB. Although, people have circumvented this by gaining access through satellites to channels such as BBC Persian, Voice of America, Radio TV etc. but this too is quite difficult and limited as satellite dishes are banned.
With little access to traditional forms of media some Iranians are making ample use of the freedom internet seems to offer. Today, out of the 74 million population 27.9 million are internet users. According to Harvard University’s Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, there are nearly sixty thousand Persian-language blogs which are updated regularly. And while, opposition leaders have little access to the traditional media to voice their opinions they have turned to the internet and many now have their own websites. Although there are attempts to censor these blogs, Iranians have tried to creatively circumvent such limitations, but then again, the number of Iranians who have access to the internet is very limited still, and while many called the 2009 protests a twitter revolution it was far from it, because as Malcolm Gladwell in one his column points out most of these tweets were in English rather than Farsi and were by people who were outside Iran. The Iranian government itself has become swift and more technologically advanced in catching people who post blogs illegally, or do so after circumventing Iranian firewall. For instance, in October 2010, Hossein Ronaghi Maleki was sentenced to 15 years in prison for hosting many Iranian bloggers by circumventing government censorship.
The comparatively large amounts of information we have about the situation is Iran can be attributed to all the journalists and activists who were forced to leave their homes and now find shelter in other countries, but it’s also due to the
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