Censorship fears rise as Iran blocks access to top websites
The Guardian (UK) ^ | December 4, 2006 | Robert Tait
Iran yesterday shut down access to some of the world's most popular websites. Users were unable to open popular sites including Amazon.com and YouTube following instructions to service providers to filter them.
Similar edicts have been issued against Wikipedia, the internet encyclopaedia, IMDB.com, an online film database, and the New York Times site. Attempts to open the sites are met with a page reading: "The requested page is forbidden."
The ban on YouTube reflects a growing official sensitivity to private films on the internet, an issue highlighted by a recent online video which appears to show an Iranian soap opera star having sex.
With some 7.5 million surfers, Iran is believed to have the highest rate of web use in the Middle East after Israel. The net's popularity has prompted an estimated 100,000 bloggers, many opposed to the Islamic regime. Some blogs are substitutes for Iran's once-flourishing, but now largely supressed, reformist press.
Illegal satellite dishes have also been seized.
FR link here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1748244/posts
"Iran yesterday shut down access to some of the world's most popular websites"
Gee, I wonder if that includes Free Republic?