Free Republic

Iranian internet users have been venting their frustration at online censorship on a website devoted to the UN's digital summit in Geneva. Hundreds of people have posted complaints online in the hope of reaching key summit delegates, after some web users in Iran found they could no longer access parts of the Google search engine. The Iranian government's tight controls force net service providers to block thousands of political and pornographic websites. A well-known Iranian blogger told BBC News Online that people hope they can increase the public pressure on the government in Tehran by using the summit blog. Attention...

The website dailysummit.net has helped to turn some of the UN World Summit on the Information Society's focus to Iran's censorship of the Internet. According to the BBC, "hundreds" of Iranian Internet users have been posting comments on dailysummit.net complaining about Iranian government censorship of more than 10,000 websites. Pro-democracy Iranians and their supporters are hoping to pressure UN technology summit delegates into lobbying Iran's government to loosen its Net censorship. The BBC claims that in spite of government censorship, Iranian blogs were instrumental in rapidly spreading word about the UN summit and recent moves by the authorities to restrict...

Web Site Takes on Repressive Government September 29, 2003 San Mateo Times Francine Brevetti 9.29.2003 As developing countries increasingly acknowledge the importance of high technology to their economies, those with centralized economies nevertheless tend to restrict their populations' Internet access. This typifies the approaches of the governments of Burma, China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and, to some degree, Singapore. China, for instance, arrested a Web surfer last week who expressed his anti-government sentiments in chat rooms. This past May, the Iranian government blocked access to a reported 15,000 Web sites. An unknown number are foreign news sites that...

Anonymizer Working on Iran Web Censor System September 10, 2003 The Associated Press Anick Jesdanun NEW YORK -- A San Diego company that runs a system for evading Internet censors is working with the U.S. government to create a special service for people in Iran. Anonymizer Inc.'s six-month contract with Voice of America's parent agency, International Broadcasting Bureau, calls for daily e-mail newsletters to Iranians with instructions in Farsi for accessing the free service. According to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based media freedom group, Iran requires Internet service providers to block hundreds of news and other sites deemed illegal. Several...

Iran's new secret Net police From Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin Jul 21, 2003 Tehran launches 'ayatollah bugs,' say student groups Sources close to student groups in Iran as well as diplomats in the capital Tehran said the government had formed a new secretive Internet police. The unit, nicknamed the "Ayatollah bugs," was formed to monitor Internet activity and especially to stem the growing number of Iranian bloggers. The government believes Iranians are using Internet blogs to spread ideas alien to the Islamic revolution and especially the idea of democracy. Agents stormed a number of universities and colleges across the country...

In Washington and Los Angeles, Iranian exiles are stirring the pot by satellite US News and World Report Nation & World 7/14/03 By Bay Fang Off a street of strip malls in Reseda, Calif., tucked behind an Arby's, a burly Iranian-American talk-show host named Shahram Homayoun sits at a desk, before a camera, and tries to foment revolution. But instead of guests joining him on the peach-wallpapered set that resembles a suburban living room, Homayoun has only a phone and fax machine, and he works like a switchboard operator. As the camera rolls and the phone lights up, he punches...

A Profile of Revolutionaries By Pejman Yousefzadeh techcentralstation.com | July 1, 2003 The ongoing revolts and demonstrations in Iran are finally capturing the attention and interest of the media, and the Bush administration -- which has decided to come down strongly in favor of the Iranian dissident movement. Protests both within Iran and outside of it have helped expose the brutality of the Iranian regime, brutality that international organizations are decrying. It is not easy to take one's life into one's own hands, as the protesters are doing night after night, and risk injury, arrest, and even death at the...

July 01, 2003 Dow Jones Newswires The Associated Press TEHRAN -- Iran is buying advanced U.S. technology through third parties to block web sites run by opposition groups, an official said Tuesday. More than 140 web sites promoting dissent against the ruling Islamic establishment, and others including dancing and sex, have been blocked since the crackdown was launched last month, said Farhad Sepahram, a Telecommunications Ministry official.