Nobel Peace Story!

Coming soon!

Iran's Media Profile

A Short Review on Iran’s Media Profile

Omid Habibinia

Media Researcher, Lund University, Sweden

Modern communication has a history about 150 years in Iran, but form the early beginning all media facing censorship, dictatorship and suppression.

Here we could take a quick look at the general situation of communication profile, hoping it makes more clearly some facts about Iran.


Newspapers

Publishing the newspaper and journals as the first modern media about 177 happened by the government.


Since that date till now thousands of newspapers and magazines has published in Iran, but only governmental related newspapers could continue to publish.

The oldest newspapers in Iran is Etelaat which has 83 years and managed by the leader representative.

Total number of national newspapers: 64
Circulate of national newspapers: 1.800.000 per day (estimated)
Local newspapers: 111
Circulate of local newspapers: 300.000 per day (estimated)
Magazines: 3328
Circulate of magazines: 950.000 per month (estimated)
Ratio a newspaper for an Iranian over 17 years: one to 17.

Radio

Radio Tehran, The first radio station has began in May 1940 since that time till now only governmental radios are allowed broadcasting in Iran.

Radio channels: 13
(Iran, Tehran,Tejarat, Alborz, Sedai Ashna, Farhang, Quran, Javan, Payam, Salamat, Goftego, Varzesh.

Local Radio: 30

Television
Iran’s national TV has began since march 1967, before it, Irans first and last private TV broadcasting its program for Tehran and some major cities for a few years but due to the government pressure forced to stop and replaced with National Radio and TV.

National channels: seven (1.2.3.4. Khabar, Amozesh and Quran)

State TV: 20

International TV channels: six (Jame Jam 1,2, PressTV, Khabar, Alalam and Sahar)

Cinema

The first Iranian movie had screened in the second of January 1931 by Evanes Oganisians.

Film industry from the beginning pressured by harsh censorship by the government, but after establishing Islamic Republic the censorship wasted in many dimensions and gets structured.

All process of film making from pre- production to post production and screening are under governments control and should confirmed by authorities.

However every year some of products movies are not able to get screen license although all screen and production facilities are owned or regulated by the government.

Average of Iranian movies screening per year: 55
Movies shown in last year: 56

Movie Theaters. Less than 300
Average rate of going to cinema: less than three times per year for Iranians over 12 years in major cities.

Internet

Islamic Republic besides China is the notorious country in the world for censorship in Internet, also capturing, threaten and jailing online journalists and bloggers. Now the number of banned websites in Iran is over five millions.

Rate of Influence: More than 20%
Internet Users: About 18 millions

Alternative Media

Except entertainment Radio and TV channels inside and outside Iran, in recent years number of alternative media such as blogs, underground movies, videos and music has increased.
Theses alternative media exploring hidden voices of the society facing dictatorship in Iran.

Sat TV: 49 (at least ten others are on the way)
Radio (broadcasting from outside the country): 59 radio based on governmental budgets by foreign countries and more than 500 independent radio networks, mostly broadcasting on Internet.
Blogs: about three millions Persian blog (third in the world after US and China)

Audience

About 55% of Iranians speak Persian among their families, however 45% speaking other languages other than Persian as the first language at home.

More than 70% of the population is under 33 old, these structure occurred to more dynamics and interaction in mass communications.

More than 65% of house holders in the major and medium sized cities using Satellite TV, regardless it is forbidden and based on law, it users may facing fine, confiscating the stuffs and in second time jail.

State TV viewers are about 85% and state radio listeners about 9%.

Persian radios broadcasting from outside in the normal situation, based on the state polls are about 7%.

The most visiting News Websites inside Iran are: Irna, Isna and Tabnak and from outside are: BBC Persian, Radio Farda and Balatarin.

In 90% of houses at least there is a TV set and in 97% of houses at least there is a radio.

Mobile users in Iran (who sometimes capture videos and pictures of demonstrations, protests and some news events and upload them on sharing websites) are more than 23 million with 34% influence rate.

Internet influent rate is increasing in last year, exceeding other Middle East countries and expecting next year reaches to about 30%, while gaining access Internet and speed and other service is in primary process. Some of these problems back to officials durecels to providing high speed Internet and increasing the quality in fear of using it as exchange multi/media against the regime.

Iran has a top place in publishing books and music products in the Middle East, but the average of publishing them are not matched with the rate of potential audience who are usually are youth.

The most of books publishing in Iran are religious texts which presenting by governmental publishers.

At the same underground, illegal music albums and videos has huge number of customers at underground market in the country.

Some estimated saying the amount of money in this underground market for illegal videos (mostly onscreen or even pre-screening Hollywood movies and sometimes illegal copies of pre-screening of some Iranian movies) is much more than screening movies in Iran's movies theater for the whole year.

Please Note This Profile was written for a Research Institute in February 2009 and some of the statics may change until now.

Who is afraid of facebook?

In the last five years, social networking has not only introduced a new use of the internet, but has also changed our life style.

The first social networks were only used as means of amusement and pleasure, but today, the political and social lives of many users have been influenced by them as well.
The three web sites of Facebook , good for exchange of information, groups, and friend finding, Youtube, best for sharing videos, and Twitter, capable of spreading news very fast, were most useful for those professional users of internet.
The use of these three web sites in the American presidential elections, which became known as “net campaigns”, made clear just how effective these sites are for attracting the public.
Most social networking sites, with the exception of sites like “Club”, have always been filtered in Iran. But it seems this was less due to religious and ethical worries than to the fear that those sites might be used as a new kind of media.

When Facebook, a symbol of a new generation of social networking, became famous amongst Iranians, it was quickly filtered in Iran, and it was filtered up to last February. Then, surprisingly, both Facebook and Youtube became accessible again!

Conspiracy delusion or intelligence machinations?

When Facebook was finally available in Iran, hundreds of thousands of users registered in the first month. This sudden and unexpected passion for Facebook caught the attention of the web site’s management as well. Some reports say that after four and a half months that Facebook was accessible in Iran, the number of registered Iranians increased by 7000% !! And statistics say that today more than six hundred thousand people within Iran are a member of this site.
Even though Facebook never publishes membership numbers according to country, two indicators show that during the spring of 2009, this site became the most popular among Iranians. One is the report of international interactions in Facebook, which compared to the previous year’s season shows incredible increase of Facebook users in Iran. This compelled the Facebook management to make Facebook available in Persian, and by the beginning of the protests in June, Persian Facebook was already up and running.
The second indicator was statistics from sites such as Aleksa, which showed unprecedented increase in the population of Iranian users. And in the last few days before the elections, Facebook was the third popular site in Iran, after Yahoo and Google.
But what made those in charge of censorship on Iran, used to filtering every blog containing even the slightest anti-regime content, decide to make Facebook and Youtube available?

There were signs showing that the regime’s intelligence agents were monitoring and tracing opposition forces and journalists, and at the time some believed that Facebook was a great way to control secret and open movements. Others thought the government wanted to use Facebook and Youtube for election campaigning, as it had been used in USA, providing them with a reference base of 25 million users. However not only did we not see official Islamic Republic agents using Facebook and Youtube for advertising, but there also isn't a single fan page for Ahmadinejad in Facebook - where you find pages for all imaginable subjects!

A third opinion, which was brought up later, was the possible part of Hossein Derakhshan and Payam Fazlinejad, theoreticians of the Revolutionary Guards and the Intelligence Ministery’s mental warfare, in directing an “election show”.
Therefore Facebook, Youtube, and some other politically active sites were crossed off the must-be-filtered list of the country, then reformists were permited to use the new media freely, and in the end the televised debates helped to heat up the “elections”.
In the history of television in Iran, there had never been this many viewers for a program and although most people also had access to alternative media, 90% of the population were watching presidential live debates on television. This means that almost everybody watched the debates.
This previously unimaginable campaign of the reformists in both the real and the cyber world resulted in a decrease in number of long-time election boycotters. In the last few days before the election, many of them were caught in the “wave of propaganda” of the middle classes and went to the ballot on Election Day.
However the curtain of the show went down on June 12th at midnight, when surprisingly Ahmadinejad was announced the winner.
So the highest participation rate in elections since the beginning of the Islamic Republic and the referendum went down in history as a success for Ahmadinejad, the winner with 63% of the votes.

Therefore, according to those who believe in a conspiracy planned beforehand, it becomes obvious why Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and many other politically active sites were up made available until the “ election show”.
In the morning of the election day, the TV channels Persian BBC network and Voice of America were no longer available, the Green Wave’s internet television center was raided, all information sites and social networks were blocked, and then journalists were arrested, newspapers were controlled or even blocked – in short, a kind of military coup.
Facebook and Twitter, which had been made available to the public by the government itself, were called dangerous and conspiratorial; in his indictment against the protesters (or, as Iranian state media call them: “hooligans”), the Islamic Republic’s public prosecutor also identified them as tools in the intrigues and conspiracies of western countries and their intelligence agencies.

In this indictment, which was written based on past and present speculations of Hossein Derakhshan, the velvet coup d’état (the prosecutor prefers to use “coup d’état” instead of “revolution”) is said to have three branches: intellectual, executive, and media.
In the indictment, Twitter is accused of having delayed its maintenance, which required that the site be down for a few days, in order to help and support the “trouble makers”. Facebook is accused of “facilitating the interactions of Iranians with other countries during the commotions, so the enemies had better access”.
The third accused company is Google, who has put up “English to Persian and Persian to English translating software” to help “the hooligans”.
So those modern media, which tried to spread the voice of the people after all other media were banned from doing so, are now incriminated by the system.

Alternative sub-media killed the beast!

While in a court in Tehran people are facing trial for having sent an email, given an interview, or posted something on Facebook, blogs or Twitter, an independent media was created which had all the characteristics of a modern alternative media: Dynamics, independence, individuality, diversity, cooperation and self-encouragement.
During this two-month movement, these minor media were the only source of true information for the major ones. They were used for transmitting information and news from the streets; footage shot on people’s cell phone cameras were the only evidence of the ongoing protests, Twitter became the number one resource of spreading news, and blogs and facebook were used for disseminating information that was less accessible.
This means that due to extreme censorship, the normal flow of information was reversed, and now the major media had to use productions of normal citizens as news.
The effect of this new phenomenon was that many people, whether consciously or not, became “reporters”, and the flow of information found a new course, based on small independent sources which are at the same time dynamic and wide spread.
So the social networks had a strong impact against censorship, and at the same time created an atmosphere of cooperation, solidarity and mutual encouragement.
Today, whether these protests are silenced or not, our economical and political life would not be the same without Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.

• Establishment of networks of likeminded people
• Public and personal news publishing
• Self-boosting and wave-creating
• Effect on everyday lifestyle
• Effective as a new model of public education
• Facilitating cooperation between people of different backgrounds
• Reflecting the cyber life
• Reflecting and unifying the public view
• Mental hygiene, and finding new connections

But it is obvious that the political applications of these networks are most important for those in charge of organizing the protests and spreading information, and, by the same token, also for security and judicial organs of the Islamic Republic. Although they can block television, radio and sites, images, news, rumors and information will find their way into social networks, and from there will be spread worldwide. Thus images like those of Neda Agha Soltan dying in front of the camera will remain recorded in history and in the mind of the people, becoming a symbol of protests against dictatorship in Iran.

Photos by: Raha Asgari Zadeh

Note: Footnote: Youtube cannot strictly be considered a social network, but its model of membership and exchange as well as the possibility to share links make it similar to a social network.

Published in: UK Indymeda, Daily Life, Deutschland Indymedia, Suisse Indymedia, Rise of Iranian People, and...

Iran at the crossroads: Revolution or Bargaining?

The protest movement in Iran has grown beyond asking for a simple reform of the evil Islamic regime preached by so called reformers. Meanwhile the remainders of reformers in the expat communities, completely beleaguered, are trying hard to revive the discredited theory of “bargaining on top”. One day they plead with powerful individuals to intervene on behalf of defeated reformists and bring the situation back to its pre elections status and the next day they promise to form a new political party that would exclude some of the old players like the “Mosharekat, Islamic revolution Mojahedin or Kagozaran party”. Karoubi tried in vain to form a new reformist party four years ago without achieving any results.

Although, the stupidity and confusion of the remainder of reformists to come up with such tactics against a police state who wants to eliminate them completely from the political scene might surprise the masses that have come to the streets with radical demands, but is not at all uncommon.

No one expects Mousavi and Karoubi to go beyond calling for Allaho Akbars, Islamic pray or Friday prayer as forms of protest.

Mousavi and Karoubi are asking the same government who cheated in the elections to grant them the permission to form a political front and are warning their supporters against questioning the fundamentals of the regime.

By calling the situation a “family fight” Mousavi who is the loser in the Khamenei-Ahmadinrjad game, is trying to at least bring it back to its pre elections status. What he doesn’t understand is that especially after June 20th Khamenei himself has become people’s main target and hence there is no turn back.

By continuing its repressive and violent policies, the ruling faction is making it harder to go back to normal and at the same time alienating further the large middle class population who supports Mousavi.

The main characteristic of the movement after June 20th has been its radicalism and its disconnect from the so called reformist leaders. In other words within the ten days following the elections the movement changed from a silent protest demanding new elections to street fights trying to overthrow the regime. This surpassed even the demands of the most radical factions of the reformists.

At a time when wide spread protests and new popular initiatives have put the possibility of a new revolution more and more in sight, some reformist supporters who themselves “movement’s spokesmen in exile” are waiting for a miracle or divine hand to bring their faction back to power. Let us have a closer look at these divine hands and their playground:

• Makhmalbaf and some his friends who were late to join the green movement overseas argue that Mousavi needs to bring the people to the streets. The fundamental question is why Mousavi should do so and what will he achieve by bringing people to the streets?

As Mousavi said it himself in his statement after the fiasco of ballot recount, his supports should limit themselves to legal protests and avoid slogans that tend to question the fundamentals of the regime. Any disobedience from Mousavi’s part will put him in opposition to the principle of supreme leadership and therefore the Islamic republic itself. This goes against the reformists’ interests and ideology. The reformists do not want to overthrow the Islamic republic. On the contrary they want the continuation of the current regime and will be happy to remain in the sidelines of the political power.

• Kadivar and some reformist clergy question the religious legitimacy of the government. After getting disappointed with some of their most powerful supporters in the regime, namely Rafsanjani and Nategh Noori, they started pleading with the Grand Ayatollahs. With the exception of Montazeri and Sanei the rest of them limited their actions to issuing toothless statement and avoided confronting the devil.

The assembly of experts, the expediency council and all the rest of the clerical bodies were so afraid to have a similar fate to Shariatmadari and tens of other dissident clerics that they opted not to oppose Khamenei openly.

Furthermore issuing a fatwa on the lack of religious legitimacy or ability of the government will only be efficient if the majority of the religious supporters of the regime react positively to it. Not only these fatwas do not impress the supporters of the regime who for the most part are religious, but the general population is so disillusioned by religion that it will not get motivated by them. Even if they succeed in motivating the people how will they change the current government’s behavior. No one will find any consolation in a fatwa that all of sudden declares illegitimate actions of a regime that has been illegitimate all along.

• Farokh Negahdar and most of the ex members of Fedayin( Majority) are preaching for a step by step policy and putting pressure on the leadership of the regime through a range of means without destabilizing the system. But in reality no internal means are left to pressure the regime so the bargaining game could go on top. The step by step policy and promises of a future election are of no use to people who are fighting the military and security forces in the streets. Why should people believe in this game again when Karoubi himself feels ashamed for not listening to those who were warning of the vainness of elections in the Islamic republic?

• Mohsen Sazegara and other radical reformists outside Iran want to organize civil protests. According to this group, organizing limited strikes and safer types of demonstrations could help destabilize the system. The question remains what will be the main objective of these safe middle class tactics? Do the reformists intend to seize the political power by relying on people’s power and an uprising? The answer is no. Sooner or later these reformist ideologues theoreticians have to explain to people who are taking to the streets despite the advice of different factions, the objective of their suggested protests in the current political deadlock.

• The green united front is the solution offered by a range from the right wing parties going to half democrats who lately joined the green movement outside Iran. This group that includes Tudeh party, Fedayin of People(Majority ), some monarchists and a whole range of other people with no affiliation jumped the band wagon of the green movement one week before the elections not to miss the post election party. After weeks of confusion they now want to board the movement’s band wagon. With their unity slogans they want to claim the movement their own. But the first question this group needs to answer is this: Should we overthrow the Islamic republic with a revolution or by revolutionary gestures? Answering this question will not be easy for those who up until yesterday were trying to infiltrate the regime or reforming it. · Nabavi and his friends want to start a green television and media. They believe the only thing missing in the protest movement inside Iran is its own green media. What will differentiate this new media from Roozonline and other reformist Internet sites is a question they intend to answer only after establishing it. Does this satellite green television plan to teach new ways of protest or is it going to call for a more organized way of struggle? And if so, will this new media act more like a brake or an accelerator to this movement? Why should a satellite TV station be established by those who have nothing but outdated lectures to give to the people? Which one their previous analyses have become true and which one their guidelines have become useful to people who are fighting in the streets?

It is said that one day Mollah Nasredin saw two people who were fighting. He took his blanket and started running away. When asked why he was running away since they were not fighting him, he answered: Don’t you know that their fight will end up being over my blanket?

Our story is quite similar to Molla Nasredin’s story.The “family fight” between the so called reformists and hardliners is not our fight. People’s demands go beyond what the reformists who believe in the system can possibly deliver. The masses have shown that “the game of powerful” is not their game. If the middle classes succeed in bringing the working classes to it side and turn on the engine of the revolution and only then all these political flirting will go to its rightful place; the trash can of history. This is what happened during the 1979 revolution and will inevitably happen again in a “revolutionary situation”.

The masses are reaching to a point of no return; or they will get defeated due to the lack of organization and theory and therefore will have to take their protest underground or once for all in the streets with a general strike will close forever the old book of defeat and open a new page in the history.

Published in:

Iranian.com

Also in:

Indymedia

Indymedia UK

Indymedia Swiss German

Indymedia Swiss Itlaian

Indymedia Swiss French

Related Article:

This Might Be A New Revolution!

This Might Be A New Revolution!

More than one month has passed since the ruling faction of the Islamic Republic tried to silence all voices of dissent by rigging the election results and staging a semi coup-d’etat. By now it looks like a large portion of young Iranians have come to share the views that many intellectuals and progressive forces have had since before the elections: a regime which is founded on injustice and fear is not reformable; a view that reflects the realities of the streets of Iran today.

Meanwhile, the so-called reformists and their supporters outside Iran, who had received a severe blow on the night of the elections, saw their game of haggling within the system completely crushed and ruled out by the Supreme Leader. Completely dejected, their actions were limited to sending a few sarcastic messages here and there.

The people, on the other hand, did the undoable. The day after the Supreme Leader threatened the protesters with harsh consequences - namely bullets for those who dared to go out - they took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, brushing aside the games of the two defeated candidates, and paid for it with their lives in order to change history.

Before the protest, the Moussavi camp was denying rumors of their participation in it, and instead went to the same authorities who had organized the coup, asking for an official permit for a rally.

To finish off the reformists, the Ahmadinejad-Khamenei gang had a new trick; they threatened the reformists with total elimination from the political scene, in order to have them step out of the arena voluntarily.

After Rafsanjani deviously thanked the Supreme Leader for his efforts, after the ridiculous show of ballot recount and result certification by the Guardian Council, and especially after their unsuccessful attempt that resulted in only recruiting 3 Ayatollahs to help their cause, the Association of the Combatant Clergy finally gave up and, in a statement to the people, called for calm, in order to salvage the game by getting back some of their detained members.

In a similar message, Moussavi called for calm and warned people not to be deceived by slogans targeting the fundamentals of the Regime, and to limit their demands for a redo of the elections. In an attempt to remain in the political scene, and to keep his positions in various political and cultural establishments, he even emphasized that this is a fight within the family, and outsiders that should not be allowed in.

Mehdi Karoubi, the other defeated candidate, also called for calm and asked people to return to their houses, but the “Sheikh of Reform”, as he is called, was naïve enough to blame himself for not listening to those intellectuals who had warned him about the futility of the elections and the will of the ruling faction to accept its results.
The people, however, came down to the streets on the 20th of June and selflessly fought the Basij, Revolutionary Guard, and all other security forces of the ruling regime. Along the way, they learned that what they can achieve on the street scenes could never be achieved with outdated political games.

Here are some of the most important characteristics of the June uprising:

1. The middle class, who has played a very important role in the protest and its organization, is one step from retreat, and one step to the revolution. The direction of its step will be determined by its success or defeat in bringing the more progressive parts of the bourgeoisie as well as the lower classes to its side.

2.Only if they silence all protest voices and successfully push the rival camp in the sidelines will Ahmadinejad and Khamenei’s lunatic curveball election results survive. Under these circumstances, any further dissent will trigger more lunatic plans on their part. This will, in turn, push the political tension beyond the brink in a society that is increasingly seeking its fate on the street scenes and not behind closed doors. By the time Khamenei has heard the voice of the revolution, even sacrificing some of his accomplices will not do him any good.

By taking the initiative into their own hands, and not allowing it to remain within the petty games of the two political factions, the people can disorient both factions and the regime’s repressive apparatus. This will unite their movement even further.

3.The repressive apparatus of the regime is dependant on human forces who break quickly under pressure. The continuation of the demonstrations, protest, strikes and all other new popular initiatives will break apart this machine regardless of its size and cruelty. After a while, we will witness the disobedience and desertion among their ranks. Unlike the people who are supporting each other, the police and the security forces of the regime are physically tired and emotionally consumed. Their motivation to confront people will diminish in time and the humane behavior of the brave young Iranians will accelerate their desertion.

4.The ruling faction took a risk that has put it in a lose-lose situation. If they can successfully suppress close to 40 million people, the movement will go underground. Sooner or later the generation who has experienced violent street protest and does not fear guns anymore will bring down the foundations of the regime. If, on the other hand, the large rallies and other forms of popular unrest go on and end up mobilizing all political classes, and finally a general strike happens, it will spell the speedy end of the regime.

5.The working classes will only enter the fight if they realize there is place for their radical demands in it. The upper classes will only directly confront the regime if they are assured if a speedy victory and are guaranteed of better economical and political interests. Therefore the middle class has no way but to remain in the streets.

6.the progressive and radical forces within the urban middle class has to chose between taking the leadership of the movement and its transition to a progressive revolution or like in 1979 wait for savior to take the lead. The 30 years of Khomeini has only brought about misery for people hence it will not be wise to wait for another savior to come along.

the progressive forces should draw a clear line between themselves and the all kinds of reactionary, religious or accidental dissidents. They should not allow the 1979 to repeat itself when the opportunistic clergy was preaching unity to defeat the shah but in the back room was plotting to eliminate all other forces.

7.Progressive forces must seriously spread information, deepen theoretical understanding and confront the pundits of both factions of the regime inside and outside Iran. They should use every opportunity to promote alternative ideas and put a leash on the common superficiality, lack of persistency, banality and constant need of a savior among the middle classes.

To my view the present uprising although radicalizing by day is still few steps away from becoming a revolution. The same distance it has from accepting the coup and going quiet for a while. The uprising has opened a new chapter in out fight for democracy and its transition to our final battle.

In his 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonapart, Marx argues that bourgeoisie tries to bring to its side every change and every force generating change. In the midst of chaotic and unplanned fights calling for calm, hero making and has always been a reformist action plan.
Reformists by nature act always like the fifth wheel of car in a society that wants to move forward. Most of the times their absence is better than their presence.

The reality is that after 20th of June 2009 the time of hope in reform has come to an end.the only hope the fearful heads of the regime have now is the lack of revolutionary forces on the ground and the low level of public awareness which has been caused by years of repression and censorship. But the revolutionary conditions that we are witnessing are very innovative and resourceful. There is great possibility that an alternative will be born out the street battlegrounds and from inside the factories and universities. An alternative that could represent the progressive aspirations of people.

Many people believe we have entered a point of no return and those of us who are fighting the IR gunmen on the streets will open a new chapter in the Iranian history in a final battle.

Published In: UK Indymedia
Also:
New American Media
Indymedia Suisse Romande
Indymedia
Indymedia, Italian Swiss
Indymedia, Deutsch Swiss
Rise of Iranian People
Where is My Vote
Iranian Corner
Iranian.Com
...

Facebook and Election Campagin in Iran, Greens vs Blues!

Shohreh, a 23 years female art student in Tehran, began her day near noon with Facebook.

Sitting on the suffa, drinking her coffe and checking links, notes, status, photos, videos and comments on Facebook, but at Saturday 23th May, when she went to the usual page, found a message from Islamic Republic’s Communication minstry that Facebook is filterd in the country.
The message make her upset, that means she may lose all her online communication and friends, events and changes, but this was not really a big shock!
Everybody knew soon or later FB will be filterd again. We found that FB is not anymore filtred in Iran in last February while sudenlly got a lot of friend requests fro Iran.

Facebook itself condomed the filtering and called it shameful and even some of close adminstrations of Mossavi seeing it as a another pressure to cut accessing the information about Mossavi’s platforms, Yesterday even Kahrobi condomed it.
On Wedensday Mahmod Ahamadinejad stressed during a press-conference that he is not ordering the filtering of it. Following the confrence, facebook users in Iran found it open again.

Ahmadinejad also said: "I believe in maximum freedom of expression."
Many Iranians recently joined Facebook as a way of communicating and during election-time since it is an interactive media that allows involvement in politics whilst all other medias inside the country are under the harsh censorship.

However,It has been said at the first timeFB could help inteligence agents in Iran gathering information about journalists, deisenters, human rights activists, bloggers and women movment.
They even hacked my FB and Gmail and accessed some information about my projects. They also made a similar ID with my name added my friends or political activists on FB and asked some information, when I noticed report the fake ID to FB and they delet it.
Maybe at least they got valuable information about subjected people, like recent photos, recent conections and their planes, trips and even adresses and telephon numbers.

Since last month Iranian community on FB devided in two huge groups, pro-reformists (Greens) and pro-bycott (Blues).

Many groups and notes has published on defence of each approach, in one, pro-reformists blaming pro-bycott for Ahamadinejad’s victory in last election, in that election he got more than 17 million votes,however that election faced with the vaste bycotte movement and about 41% didn’t participate in second round of it.
But in the other one the debate is more hot, many people beliving participating in election means vote to Islamic Republic which has less legitmacy nowadays in public opinion.

When Mir Hossein Mossavi’s fans colored their profiles photos in green as a color of his election campagin, the deisenters also colored their profile photos in blue, then two big groups of Iranians in Facebook facing each other many online friends removed from each others list and arguments replaced with accusation and anger.

The Greens acctualy started the huge attack aginst bycooting supporters to make them passive, the kind of propaganda against the Blues, brought waves of critics, specialy when pro-Mosavi used a popular radical leftist’s song in their Youtube clip.

The song was belonged to the most popular leftist group called Fedaeian Guerilla fighted agianst Shah Regime, “Aftabkaran e Jangal” (The Sun seeders in Jungell) is a populae song still singing in Iran as a leftists solgan, but suddenly stolen by pro-Mossavi’s and broght a deep anger reaction on FB.

Mossavi, himself is accused as the one of main persons who leads the supression of political oppssitions and mass killing of political prisoners in 1980’s.

As the conforting between two wings in FB is climaxing, it is obvious pro Mehdi Kahrobi’s are in the minority and pro Ahmadinejad (Red) are a few.
In my Iranian list, I have about 30% Blue, 45% Green, 10% pro Kahrobi and 15% wanderers or not intersted to politics one.
From last week, pro Kahrobi’s who are using White seems being increased on FB, while pro Mossavi’s are getting more quite comparing the past week.

One of the most intersting debates on FB happened when I invited Ebrahim Nabavi my famouse coullegue who supporting Mossavi for the first online debate on Iran’s election on Facebook, about 200 people participated in the debate while they need to refresh the page can read each side respond.

But only my friends could read the text, so I put it on a blog and the blog got a number of 3500 visits at first night and 4400 at second night on Friday and suddenly both blog and FB has filterd in Iran on Sataurday, so the number of vistors decresed to about 550 vistors and only 20% of them were from Iran.

Iranians have a large number of FB users, one of FB PR’s told me they don’t have an exact data about countries detials, but some experts are estimating about 3.5% of Internet users in Iran participating FB from March till end of May, this should be about 700,000. Iran has about 20 millions internt users, one of the most accesses in the Middel East and at the same time one of the most restricted countries in the world for censoring the internt.

Shohreh, who told me last night spending less minutes to access FB than yesterday because of new proxy, finding many ways in her mail box and even wall to reach the FB, one of this helping message is from me, recomonding Firefox adds one for anti-blocking FB.
She still not decided wheather she wants to vote for reformists or want to bycote the election like last term, but following arguments and links on FB, communicating with people about current events and share her ideas on FB.

All togeather she wants have fun, she told me she just found her beloved high school clasemate in LA and just “meeted” a few intersting guys.
While we are aproaching the election time in less than 3 weeks, Greens and Blues countinung their competition to collect more supporters.

However for Shohreh and many young people like her Facebook is a part of their private life in social network, sharing hidden interstes with others, like other illigal things in Iran you can find in many houses, new Hollywood movies, Satelite TV and underground music.

Shohreh is now going to sleep, saying goodbye to me on chat while I am reciving many chat texts from different type of people from a peoet girl in Tehran to a leader of an opposite group, but she really happy can access FB tomorrow as usual tomorrow noon again, while she was online for about 18 hours, she said tomorrow she will post on FB her point of view about Ahamdinejad’s election speech on state TV.


Photo Credits:
1+4: Samar
2 : Behanm Sahvi
-------------------------------------

France 24 Observers' Version

26/05/2009 / IRAN
Facebook ban lifted: “the only place where we can talk about politics”

No wonder the authorities wanted Facebook banned. But Iranian Facebook users are heaving a sigh of relief today after access to the site was reopened this morning. So what was all the fuss about? One of our Observers in Tehran explains the election debates raging on the online social network and why President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad probably isn't a big fan. Read more...
Contributors Shohreh.
» Français عربية

Obama asks Khamenei to Tango!

...

How IRI Iran reacts to Obama’s Norouz message

By Omid Habibinia - Media Researcher and Journalist

A few days before Norouz, (first day of spring, which is celebrated by Iranians as the New Year) rumors circulated that this time there would be a different message from the White House.

...

For the first time, a US president sent a video, rather than a written message, marking Norouz and addressed the people and leaders of the Iranian Islamic Republic together.
The message made some opposition groups angry, since the Iranian people were addressed equally with the Islamic Republic’s leaders.


On the other side, in Iran, everybody waited for a response from Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme (political and cleric) leader. When he talked about the message the day after, in Mashhad, he said in his speech: “We still couldn’t see any real change in US diplomacy toward Iran, if (the) US government continues its animosity with Iran, we would be the same (men) as (the) last 30 years.” This was interpreted as the official Islamic Republic’s response to Obama’s message.


In his messages, the US president asked for an ending to the animosity between the two countries and stated:

“My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community. This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek instead engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.”

After the Islamic Republic’s leader gave his response, some of the regime’s leaders, including Rafsanjani (Iranian president from 1989 to 1997), also exhibited the same reaction asking for real change in US policy toward Iran, some of them such as Ahamadinejad insisted and repeated Khamanei’s opinion that they could see little if any change in US policy yet.



Since the White house called Obama’s message ‘just the beginning’ of new a diplomacy to insure Iran’s regime for real change, the new opportunity of direct talk came up.
When the US Foreign Office asked Iran to participate in the Afghanistan summit at The Hague, Iran actually sent its “B Team”. At the summit, the only direct talk between the two countries was greetings and the shaking of hands, which also came with different stories from both sides.

However, it seems due to a huge economic crisis in Iran, that the Islamic Republic’s leaders prefer to have more hidden economic talks with the US administration than direct talks that might form a relationship with the US.



Based on an Associated Press analysis, Iran was one of the highest benefitting customers of US exports in 2008. The two governments have no official direct relationship and in fact, Iran is still under US sanctions.

...


Please Read More in GER


GLOBAL ECONOMIST REVIEW (PDF) © VOL1. Issue 6, April 15 2009

Iran's New Internet Attacks on Dissenters

Omid Habibinia
February 25, 2009


In recent weeks, there has been a notable increase in Facebook "friend requests" from colleagues and friends in Iran. It seems that someone has decided to allow more Iranians access to the Web site, at last.

Facebook is one of the most popular online social networking venues among Iranians and it's estimated that over 200,000, mostly living abroad, are members.

Alexa.com, which collects Web traffic and ranking data, shows that a quiet but significant change took place among the usual top-ranked Web sites' weekly visits inside Iran. However, blog providers remain on top on the list — Blogfa, a free Persian Weblog service, claims to have more than 1,500,000 member blogs. Other providers, including Persian Blog, Mihan Blog, and Parsiblog are said to have an estimated 700,000 members, while roughly 300,000 Persian users frequent Wordpress, Blogger and Blogsky.

Iran is credited with having the third largest blogsphere after the United States and China, with 2.5 million blogs drawing approximately 5 million hits per day. It is estimated that Iranian bloggers tend to update their blogs on an average of at least once per week.

It is well known that the Iranian government has been filtering online political dissident and critical blogs for years. This has forced bloggers to search for other less conspicuous Web venues to exercise their right to express themselves freely. Until last month many such providers, like Blogger and Wordpress, were banned by most Internet providers in Iran.

The Islamic Republic is notorious not only for banning and filtering blogs, and the Internet generally, but also for inflicting heavy punishments on non-conformist bloggers, such as kidnapping, imprisonment, and torture. At the present time there are about 20 bloggers, including five women's rights activists, in jail where there are many stories of suspicious suicides and deaths.

A committee drawn from the Ministry of Intelligence, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, the High Council of Cultural Revolution, and the ministries of Communication, and Islamic Guidance and Culture are responsible for the filtering and banning activity.

Reportedly, more than 5 million sites have been banned in Iran, including political, entertainment, scientific, adult, photography, sharing, and social networking venues.

The filtering has also affected some religious Shiite sites, based on some Fatwa content featuring Islamic guidance on sex and marriage. The committee's software is able to seek these words out, send the sites to a blacklist, and filter/ban them. Ironically, and on a slightly humorous note, the very same filtering system also banned content from some highly respected Ayatollahs who then cried, "Why have you filtered my Web site?"

However, since last month something has definitely changed. Some of the most popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Youtube, among others, are now slightly accessible, but not without severe repercussions for their use.

At the same time, a new and virulent wave of Internet attacks against many journalists and activists inside and outside of Iran has begun to emerge.

Last week, by chance, I noticed there is another Omid Habibinia on Facebook who has not only added my close friends and colleagues, but also my little sister. Strangely, the fake ID holder added a Swiss girl who I have spoken with and has contacted her several times to know if she can play in a docudrama about a Swiss girl who has an online friend from Iran.

I am also aware that fake ID holders have contacted other friends and asked some "strange questions."

Facebook makes an ideal platform for intelligence agents in Iran to infiltrate social networks, where they can hack information, locate events, addresses and monitor their subjects.



I have learned that my Gmail account has previously been accessed without my permission, and the persons responsible knew every contact, place and idea that I shared with others, including the re-launch of a well-known Web site that was put online about five years ago called Freedom of Expression (Azadi e Bayan). It was the first site to support Ahamad Batebi, who was kidnapped during his leave from jail after his meeting in Tehran with Ambeyi Ligabo, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' special rapporteur on freedom of expression in November 2003. The site also supported all journalists, artists, intellectuals and bloggers who were facing danger within the Islamic Republic.

Another kind of attack was recently perpetrated by "special hackers" against Balatarin, the Persian version of Digg.com.

The hackers stole the owners' IDs of this popular site, including a well-known news source in Iran. The information gleaned was used to try and hack into their bank accounts. At the same time, Balatarin was ordered to reformat their servers, making it more difficult to discover the identities of the hackers. This Web site draws more than 250,000 pageviews per day and is used as a source for following news, even among journalists.

During recent weeks, many Iranian journalists and prominent bloggers have claimed that their IDs were closed by Facebook, due to being reported for insulting or even pornographic content.

The same trick has also been used on other bloggers. Some, who use providers outside of Iran, are reported on by agents and requests are made to the blog providers for closure or to have a warning sign placed before a visitor can access the content. The complaint is that these blogs are an insult to religion or pornographically offensive. I know some bloggers who only post their usual poems on their blogs, which most of the time are neither blasphemies or erotic, but have still incurred an online warning message.

The same thing is happening on Youtube. Many demonstrations and protests in Iran are captured by mobile phones and shared on the video-sharing site. However, some of the videos have been removed because of the pressure placed on Youtube through the report of supposed insults. Some gaffs by Iranian leaders or by TV presenters are also sometimes removed by Youtube. It is clear when in a two-day period, 200 reports are received asking for the removal of certain videos, that site administrators might follow suit.



However, it seems obvious that most of these e-mails and reports came from a specific place in Tehran.

Non-conformist Iranian bloggers are now facing a new form tyranny from information and intelligence insiders on the Internet. It is hard to know who is who. I am not sure if Shirin is the Shirin who was a former colleague on TV, or if she is a fake. The strange thing is when I message her on Facebook I get the wrong answer or no answer. I always ask some personal questions about a given person's past to ascertain their true identity, but who knows if the hackers have access to background details and can correctly answer the questions?


In less than six months there is going to be another round of elections in Iran and it seems that this coordinated attack on journalists, bloggers and activists is being facilitated through Internet communication. It appears that the ultimate goals are to silence, threaten and send signals of monitoring and stolen information to infiltrate networks. Those in question have learned that they can use Facebook and Youtube for their propaganda as well.

While many concerned individuals with Facebook accounts are sifting through their newly-added friends list to find suspicious ones, the hidden war of censorship and anti-censorship continues inside Iran.

Omid Habibinia is an Iranian journalist who has worked for state radio and television organizations as a senior media researcher and producer.

Published in WORLD PRESS

Related:

Facebook Is Not Banned In IRAN Anymore;Spies Like It!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View the Worldpress Desk’s profile for Omid Habibinia.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Facebook Is Not Banned In IRAN Anymore;Spies Like It!

From Last week, I am receiving daily more than 20 new friend requests on FB, I don’t know most of them and at the same time heard about fake IDs.

This also happened to me, I notice by chance there is another Omid Habibina, he (they) even added my little sister on FB!

People sometime don’t attention why should accept another ID with the same name?

So they could access some information on FB including address, contacts, networks and monitoring them.

I asked FB immediately delete the fake ID and wrote on my statues bar "PLZ don’t add fakes, I am the only Real Omid Habibinia on FB!"

I also warned some of my friends who add fake ID ;that one is not me, plz delete it and report FB.

I also asked them to let me know about their contacts and learned he (they) asked some personal questions.

Really surprised when I got they added a Swiss girl whom I contacted with her for a film project,so... I guess they should have hacked my Gmail for a period of time.

This has been happening to many people since last months.

I believe there is a center in Tehran organized for such internet attacks.

However the Good news is: FB is not banned in Iran anymore and the Bad news is: They use it as a intelligence action!

So Plz be aware of Facebook Spies and Fake IDs!