HISTORY REPEATS: IRANIAN CENSORSHIP TIGHTENS ONCE AGAIN
By Spencer Livingstone
On June
12, 2009 , incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won his second term in
what appeared to be a landslide victory over opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavi in Iran ’s presidential
elections. With 62.6 percent of the vote, Ahmadinejad easily triumphed over
Mousavi’s 33.8 percent. So why then, immediately following the release of the
results, did tens of thousands of Iranians take to the streets of Tehran to protest
Ahmadinejad’s re-election? The wide margin of Ahmadinejad’s victory defied the
expectations of a close race that had preceded the official vote. Although no
concrete evidence could be found to confirm government interference with the
results, Mousavi declared himself the victim of “fraud” and
"manipulation", a complaint that drew agreement from the other
opposition candidates. Rallies continued for months following the election,
calling for President Ahmadinejad’s removal from office. Although the Green
Revolution protests – the popular name for the 2009 demonstrations in reference
to Mousavi’s campaign colour – were relatively peaceful, the Iranian government
cracked down severely on dissidents. Riot squads attacked and beat protesters,
who demanded that, in accordance with democracy, the president elect represent
the will of the majority.
In an attempt to quell the growing size of the
rallies, the Iranian government sought to end the exchange of information
between people. Authorities blocked cell phone transmissions, and heavily
intensified their efforts to inhibit public Internet access, slowing Internet
speed to less than ten percent of its normal rate and blocking social networks
and oppositionist websites altogether. The government also banned public
protests and rallies, and made it illegal to outwardly express dissatisfaction
with the results of the election. Although Ahmadinejad’s regime was ultimately
unable to completely disable communications between people, the fact remains
that the Iranian government explicitly tried to eliminate public access to
media that would allow the people to unite or express their opposition to the
wrongfully claimed presidency.
Four years later, little has changed. The
upcoming election scheduled for this Friday, June 14, brings with it levels of
public censorship similar to those experienced in the era of the Green
Revolution. Public access to information continues to be heavily censored in Iran , an effort led by the
Supreme Council of Virtual Space. Created in 2012, the Council has the
authority to block text messages and websites that contain targeted words,
typically those referencing the names or slogans of certain political
candidates. Certain news sites have been taken offline entirely as the election
approaches. Thousands of websites are blocked in Iran , including social
networks such as Facebook and Twitter, any websites considered to be un-Islamic
or politically dissenting, and Internet access slows to approximately five
percent of its already sluggish speed while accessing email.
"Freedom to the Internet is a human
right, outlined by the UN," says CJFE Board Member Morteza Abdolalian, who
currently runs Iran Watch Canada - a daily blog that reports on political
issues in Iran. “But in Iran there are obstacles to accessing information. The
regime is undemocratic in its entirety.”
To circumvent these restrictions, many people
have set up virtual private networks (VPNs) which allow users to hide their IP
address and location so that it appears to be a computer operating outside of
Iran. Nevertheless, the Council has recently gained control over VPNs , and has shut them down
periodically; on the eve of the announcement of the final candidate list for
the upcoming election, all VPNs were shut down, likely out of the government’s
fear of the public revolting as it did four years ago.
This censorship body of immense influence was
created, not by the order of the president, but by Iran’s Supreme Leader, who
supersedes the president’s power. Thus, the Council responds directly to the
will of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ultimately decides what can
be accessed and what must be blocked. So as candidates campaign vigourously for
public appeal, Ayatollah Khamenei has the power to allow those that he favours
to gain a wider audience than those that he disapproves of.
Widely recognized as Ayatollah Khamenei’s
favoured candidate, Saeed Jalili has the best and most comprehensive social
media network, including podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ accounts,
while other candidates experience tremendous resistance to their Internet
networking. Before he was disqualified from his candidacy, Esfaniar Rahim
Mashaei had been targeted by the Supreme Council of Virtual Space; they blocked
any message or website that used either his name or his slogan, "Spring is
arriving" because in 2009 Mashaei was dismissed from
his role as First Vice President of Iran by Ayatollah Khamenei for holding
dissenting views.
"For free and fair elections, it is
necessary for the public to have complete and equal access to information on
all candidates," says Abdolalian. "This does not happen in Iran , so it is hard for
the Iranian people to make an informed choice." Ayatollah Khamenei
possesses the power, by limiting and deciding what information reaches the
public through the internet and other mediums, to heavily influence the outcome
of the election; by no means do the results of the election rest solely within
the hands of the people.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights states that
“everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive,
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontier.”
There are at least 40 journalists currently imprisoned in Iran for their writing –
the second highest amount in the world – and the Iranian government continues
to take drastic measures towards preventing necessary information regarding the
election from reaching the very people who will be casting the votes. With such
rampant censorship and explicit limitation throughout Iran at the hands of
Ayatollah Khamenei and the Supreme Council of Virtual Space – which Abdolalian
refers to as “watch dogs” who create a climate of fear – the Iranian people do
not have access to information that is crucial to the voting process, nor do
they have the freedom to express their opinions wherever they differ from those
held by the regime.
Even if the results of tomorrow’s election
appear uncorrupted by the government, the outcome will still be far from a free
and democratic representation of the will of the Iranian people.
Link:
http://www.cjfe.org/resources/features/history-repeats-iranian-censorship-tightens-once-again
Link:
http://www.cjfe.org/resources/features/history-repeats-iranian-censorship-tightens-once-again
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