Published
by the
GLORIA Center, |
Volume 11, No. 2, Article 6/8
- June 2007 |
|
Since
the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iranian
printed and broadcast
media has been strongly controlled
by the state. However, the state's authority has been compromised
due to online publishing and the free flow of information,
especially through "Weblogistan"--the Iranian cyber-sphere
of online self-publishing journals. This has generated much
concern among the Islamic Republic authorities. Along with
satellite television and mobile phones, weblogs have irretrievably
changed the way people in the entire When three
students--Salman Jariri, Hossein Derakhshan, and
Nima Afshar Naderi--published the first three Iranian weblogs
(or blogs) in late 2001, they were not aware that this was
actually the birth of Weblogistan. Two years later, in 2003,
Iranian Weblogistan was the fastest growing cyber-sphere in
the This paper tracks major characteristics of Iranian Weblogistan, points to the challenges it has posed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and assesses ways in which the authorities have confronted them thus far.[4] It is important to note that from the outset, the bulk of internet challenges the Islamic Republic is facing (cyber-crimes, sedition, disinformation and imbalanced reporting, harassment, defamatory, hateful, obscene and immoral content, and other aspects to be discussed further) are not at all unique to the Iranian case and could apply to other countries as well. In setting up an advanced telecommunications infrastructure, each state chooses its own strategy for managing new information and communications technology. Yet the loss of the stranglehold over the flow of information reaching its populace and the emergence of an uncontrolled public sphere, such as Weblogistan, pose additional challenges for regimes in China, Egypt, North Korea, Syria, Tunisia, and Iran--which all appear on the Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) list of the "15 enemies of the Internet."[5] WHAT IS A WEBLOG? The term "weblog" (or blog for short) was scarcely familiar prior to 1999. Yet since then, weblogs have become the building blocks of one of the most vibrant virtual communities.[6] According to Nasrin Alavi, a weblog is "a kind of diary or journal posted on the internet."[7] Alireza Doostdar defines a weblog as "a website consisting of regularly updated writings arranged in reverse chronological order, usually by a single author."[8] A more complex definition is offered by Erin Simmons, who defines it as "a hyperlink-driven site containing a mixture of hyperlinks, commentary, personal thoughts and essays."[9] Dan Gilmore identifies a chain of online communications (email lists, forums, chat rooms, news groups, etc.) and categorizes weblogs somewhere in between the web and emails. He emphasizes that blogs also "link to other websites and weblog postings and many [bloggers] allow readers to comment on the original posts, thereby allowing audience discussions."[10] In its April 2007 State of the Live Web updated quarterly report, the Technorati search engine tracked over 70 million weblogs. It further estimated that approximately 120,000 new weblogs are created everyday.[11] Notwithstanding these high figures, weblogs are also abandoned at the same rate that they are created. Some commentators even contend that the life expectancy of an average weblog equals that of a fruit fly.[12] The ultra-rapid growth of this virtual global village--known by now as the blogosphere, blogtopia, blogomania, blogalization, and Weblogistan--make the process of tracking weblogs, especially those that are active, a highly challenging endeavor.[13] Although weblogs tend to share a basic format--a template, a headline, an archive arranged in reverse chronological order, blogrolls, and so forth--the dynamic evolution of this new medium has presented new methodological difficulties for research and typology. The implementation of advanced blogging tools, which improve both managing and presentation features, have already initiated the emergence of different types of weblogs (photo, video, and life weblogs, for example). In turn, online communication patterns are also being altered. As the blogosphere continues to flourish and evolve, the definition of what exactly constitutes a weblog has also become more complicated. Many personal websites have adopted weblog applications or are produced with weblogging software, thus it is difficult to discern them from true weblogs. THE WEBLOGISTAN FRONTIER Exploring the relationship between technology and online behavior, Quentin Jones suggests that the community's cyberspace is a socially produced "virtual settlement." Drawing on archaeological methodology and practices, Jones identifies four preliminary characteristics of the virtual settlement: interactivity, a variety of communicators, sustained membership, and a virtual common public space. Jones further stipulates that a virtual settlement is "symbolically delineated by topic of interest within which a significant proportion of interrelated computer-mediated communications occur."[14] Referring specifically to the blogosphere, Steve Fox defines it as "the new imagined community," inspired by Benedict Anderson's well known book, which focuses on the creation and the sustainability of the modern nation.[15] Identifying the cyber-sphere as a metropolis, Michael Hauben observes the developing sense of responsibility shared by what he has termed "Netizens:"
In this light, Iranian Weblogistan can be defined along two
dimensions. According to the first dimension, Weblogistan is
comprised of various virtual settlements in cyberspace, which
are delineated according to technical boundaries set by international
and Persian WSPs. The second dimension involves Iranian personal
weblogs written in the form of diaries by netizens or bloggers
(the term used to describe the authors of weblogs) who share
a sense of community and belong to one or more of the following
groups. The first group in current Weblogistan includes personal
weblogs written in Persian by bloggers who are permanent residents
of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The second group consists
of personal weblogs published by Iranians residing outside
the Islamic Republic, the bulk of whom are from North America
and There are numerous variations of these virtual Weblogistan
settlements. Some include writers both inside and outside of The variety of groups comprising Weblogistan serve as an
indication of its extensive social boundaries. Since 2001,
Weblogistan has developed at a formidable pace and has attained
widespread popularity. Although its origins may be found in
Western countries and technologies, it is the joining of bloggers
from THE RISE OF WEBLOGISTAN--A BRIEF BACKGROUND Weblogistan surfaced in the Islamic Republic against the
backdrop of tangible transformations during Mohammad Khatami's
presidency (1997-2005). This period witnessed growing investments
in the local telecommunications infrastructure, which was promoted
by the government and increased availability of relatively
low-cost computers from Further technological advancements during late 1990s and early 2000s were central to the rise of Weblogistan. Most notably in this respect were the international incorporation of the Unicode system--which supports Persian fonts--and the launching of the first provider of free webpages and publishing tools in Persian. PersianBlog commenced operation by hosting Persian weblog tools in June 2002. It was followed by other weblog services such as BlogFa, Mihanblog, Blogsky, and Parsiblog, which were launched during the course of 2004. The Persian weblog hosts, similar to the international prototypes (published in English), offered free service accompanied by easy-to-use software. Henceforth, internet accessibility and basic computer skills were all that were required for rapid self-publishing in Persian on the World Wide Web. News of Weblogistan swiftly spread throughout the Islamic Republic by old and new forms of mass media. Rumors, instructions, and invitations to join the blogosphere passed by word of mouth, email, newsgroups, and even graffiti of URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) on street walls, postboxes, and bus seats. In addition to
the results of a decade of war with Iraq, a troubled economy,
and
massive waves of immigration to and from Iran, the late 1990s
were also marked by the Second of Khordad reform movement (the
local date of Khatami's election in 1997) and an atmosphere
seemingly hospitable to change. Azadeh Moaveni, the Time Magazine reporter
in The sense of revitalization encouraged both individuals and social groups to retest the limits of the state's forbearance. With 40 percent of Iran's population (in 2007, estimated at around 68.5 million) between the ages of 15 and 35--the most active age group of net users and bloggers--the country's unique demography has contributed to the high receptiveness of the new cyber-sphere activity.[24] The option to choose what personal details to reveal online as well as the ability to publish anonymously under pseudonyms, aliases, and even invented identities granted rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of information, which had previously been restricted. Young
and ordinary citizens from across the country have articulated
their sense
of self, grievances, spontaneous thoughts,
casual ideas, and intuitive emotions in public. Referring to
the active and open debates that transpired in Weblogistan,
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Hossein Saffar-Harandi,
stated that such conditions allowed everyone to "comment
on current affairs as if he or she were president."[25] As
bloggers were drawn to Weblogistan for various reasons (curiosity,
experimentation, influence of others, entertainment,
etc.), the weblog was initially based on the guiding principal
of traditional personal journals, that is, self-documentation.
For instance, in his blog's introduction a 27-year-old blogger
writes: "I am just an ordinary simple Iranian boy who
wants to share his thoughts, beliefs, favorite [issues], country,
society…." In a different blog, a 31-year-old oil industrial
worker shares his daily experiences and his hobby of photography.
A Tehran-based English teacher shares her experiences as a
young single woman and human rights activist in her weblog;
and in yet another blog, a professor of social science shares
his thoughts on Islam and Iranian Weblogistan has continued to proliferate as weblogs
have begun discussing myriad topics, including for example:
sports, health and hygiene, lifestyle, caricatures and jokes,
and current affairs. Data collected during October 2006 from
four of the major Persian weblog hosts (PersianBlog, BlogFa,
Mihanblog, and Parsiblog) indicate a subtotal of 178,957 weblogs
classified by subject.[26] Traffic rankings by Alexa also reveal that 87
percent of all users of these specific hosts originate from
It comes as no surprise that the sensitive category of "politics" is not included in the list of categories that bloggers define as subjects of their weblogs. It would be wrong to assume that politics is not a major topic in Weblogistan. Despite the risks involved, highly opinionated and frequently well-informed Iranian-based bloggers also comment on domestic and international politics. Debates on political affairs are especially high during times of national crisis, such as the December 2003 earthquake in Bam, the 2006 nuclear row, and local and national elections (in 2004 for the Majlis, in 2005 for the presidency, and in 2006 for municipalities and the Assembly of Experts). Thus, weblog connectivity has also enabled interactions and
collective networking among like-minded savvy net users as
well as the discussion of topics of mutual interest worldwide.
Sharing ideas and opinions, technological knowledge, and audio-visual
files have also become central features of Weblogistan. Online
collaborations are also manifested in group blogs, maintained
by several authors. For instance, students at the Sharif University
of Technology tend to use weblogs as a forum for conversations,
community forums, and discussion groups. Another interesting
example is the unofficial Iranian cultural documentation of
visual street arts weblog, where young artists document and
display graffiti, urban signs, and stickers in support of underground
artists living in Hitherto, the circumstances that cultivated Weblogistan and its considerable growth in the Islamic Republic have been outlined. This background highlights some of the major challenges Weblogistan has posed to the Islamic Republic in recent years. By facilitating worldwide interactions and national collaborations, Weblogistan has been compromising many of the country's social and political restrictions. THE CHALLENGES OF WEBLOGISTAN Emerging as an integral part of the international blogosphere, Weblogistan has developed into a global space that does not abide by any standards of ethics or practices. Since the Islamic Republic has been promoting public internet use, in particular from the mid-1990s, Weblogistan was initially allowed to develop without any serious restrictions by the authorities.[29] As such, weblogs manifest potential hazards to expression and behavioral taboos that have prevailed in the country ever since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. By cutting across age, class, ethnic, and geopolitical boundaries,
the internet in general and weblog connectivity in particular
have been loosening some of the state's fundamental perceptions
concerning social order and its sex segregation policies. Free
and anonymous expression mediated by computers and practiced
in the privacy of one's home (or an isolated computer station)
has also enabled the dismantling of social and physical restraints.
The unedited, and informal nature of weblogs has turned them
into a source of empowerment for Iranian youth and especially
for Iranian women. It enables them to access critical information
(such as health and law), form online communities, gain social
support, and experience mixed gender interactions. Ever since
the early 1980s, the Islamic Republic has displayed sheer consistency
in enforcing sex segregation measures. The most conspicuous
forms are the compulsory chador (veil) for women and
routine moral patrols clamping down on parks, restaurants,
and other public places where young couples tend to group.
Indeed, moral concerns over indecent and subversive internet
content are not exclusive to the Islamic Republic,[30] yet they have been especially troubling for states
such as Beyond
redefining personal connectivity in the Islamic Republic,
Weblogistan
has also been an outlet through which unmonitored
contents have made their way into the country. The free flow
of information, along with foreign cultural invasion--mainly
from the No less troubling for the Islamic Republic has been the free flow of information coming out of the country. Soon after they began to multiply in 2002, Iranian personal weblogs managed to attract the attention of the international MSM, and a new kind of grassroots reporting and participatory journalism was born. Weblogs published by Iranian resident citizens and firsthand observers commenting on the happenings in Iran were gaining recognition, especially by the Western media, as supplementary or alternative sources to the Islamic Republic's official news outlets. A notable case in point was the coverage of the June 2003 demonstration and the launch of a solidarity campaign by bloggers worldwide in support of Iranian students. Weblogs proved highly beneficial,
especially in covering domestic policies that the authorities
had deliberately withheld from the national and international
public or that had been discarded as not newsworthy. Iranian-Kurdish
bloggers, for instance, were able to expose details of the
July 2005 clashes between the local Kurdish population and
the Iranian security forces in the town of Another notable weblog exposure captured on camera the violent
suppression of the June 12, 2006 women activists' protest in The extensive
coverage the phenomenon has received in the international
media raised
Weblogistan's status, and it came
to play a role in the international agenda of Confronted with these challenges, the Islamic Republic began to apply multiple measures, passing new laws and implementing existing ones, and activating comprehensive internet filtering and control-monitoring over Weblogistan, especially since 2003. At first, the authorities vehemently denied claims of any filtering activities, and even today Iranian officials rarely address the actual extent of state censorship over internet use and weblogs in particular. Yet online, the filtering of Weblogistan is surprisingly transparent, and internet users are notified (occasionally both in Persian and English) if a weblog is blocked. CAMPAIGNING AGAINST WEBLOGISTAN The April 2003 arrest of blogger, former journalist, and
film critic Sina Motallabi signaled that Weblogistan had aroused
the attention of the authorities in In February Under this new legislative framework, more than 20 bloggers
and internet journalists, mostly in their early twenties, were
detained between August and November 2004.[37] Among them was Mojtaba Samienejad, a 27-year-old
student who was sentenced to two years imprisonment for "insulting
the Supreme Guide" and ten more months for inciting "immorality."[38] With the election of the new Majlis that year,
2004 witnessed perhaps the most disturbing clampdown on bloggers
and internet dissidents. The wave of arrests included Mahboubeh
Abbas-Gholizadeh, the editor of the women's rights journal Farzaneh,
and Fereshteh Ghazi of the daily Etemad. The two women
were accused (among others things) of endorsing democracy online
and of "immoral behavior." After being held in custody
for a couple of months, they were released on high bail, and
together with fellow blog-journalists Hanif Mazroi, Massoud
Ghoreishi, and Arash Naderpour filed a formal complaint for
being mistreated, tortured, and violently interrogated during
their detention. Following the appeal, the head of judiciary,
Shahroudi, ordered the formation of an internal investigation
committee to probe the bloggers' claims, and in December 2004
the group appeared before a special presidential committee.
During the course of the procedures, some of the bloggers reported
attempts to obstruct the investigation by the underlings of
the judge Saeed Mortazavi, Further state sanctions in the form of technical filtering
and blocking were also implemented on the Iranian cyber-sphere.
Iranian weblogs such as Faryad-e Beseda ("dawn
of freedom"), published by Najma Omidparvar, was "disabled
due to terms of service violation."[41] The blocking of Omidparvar's weblog followed
her arrest in March 2005. Based on evidence found on her confiscated
computer and CD ROMs, the The responsibility for filtering indecent websites and weblogs from outside the country, as well as regulating domestic internet activity, was assigned to Iranian ISPs, which filter internet content by using various commercial filterware products of their choice. The implementation of different filtering software has resulted, according to Nart Villeneuve, in a lack of standardization in the contents blocked in the country.[43] Western filtering technology originally intended to enable parental control and deny access to pornographic sites is now used to block secret lists of immoral and politically offensive sites in countries such Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, although every country outlines its own filtering strategy.[44] Iranian ISPs failing to comply with the state's filtering strategy face heavy penalties and the revocation of their licenses.[45] Yet these filtering policies have not always produced the
most efficient and sufficient results. First, this is due to
the advancing nature of online communication technology. Iranian-based
net users are offered technical assistance in the form of online
gateways for censored sites from outside the country. Second,
using filterware (or content filtering) sometimes hinders the
state's online projects as well. For instance, in October Members of the religious establishment have also expressed their discomfort with the entire phenomenon of internet use and its devastating effects. In a lecture delivered to deputies of the Political Department of the Islamic Guard Corps on February 15, 2006, the Grand Ayatollah Nasir Makarem-Shirazi (b. 1924) stated that satellites and the internet were destructive to the morality and belief tenets of the young generation in Iran and that some of the publications were destructive tools in the hands of the enemy. The specific nature of Ayatollah Makarem-Shirazi's important message did not prevent it from being posted on his personal website.[48] COOPTING THE MEDIUM FOR THE MESSAGE The Internet as a new digital medium already played a key role in the May 1997 presidential election, when leading candidates Mohammad Khatami and Speaker of Parliament Ali Akbar Nategh Nuri formed official websites publishing their political platforms. In 2003, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, vice president during Khatami's second presidential term, was the first acting cabinet member in the Islamic Republic to launch a personal weblog. Regardless of Abtahi's failed attempts to convince the former president to publish his own weblog, by the 2005 presidential elections, blogs were incorporated into the local political campaigns. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's fans, for instance, endorsed his presidential candidacy through several semi-official weblogs, and Mostafa Moeen, professor of pediatrics and former minister, met regularly with bloggers and began publishing his own journal online. Over the course of two years, from 2003 to 2005, most of the country's prominent grand ayatollahs accumulated the new digital technology into their routine public activity. By publishing their biographical notes, speeches, written works, official visits, and photo galleries, they established what became known unofficially as the "Webatollah." Senior clerics--such as Ali Husseini Khamene'i (b. 1939), the supreme leader; Abddolkarim Mousavi Ardebili (b. 1926), the head of the judicial system under Khomeini; and Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi (b. 1934), member of the Assembly of Experts and also widely regarded as president Ahmadinejad's mentor--initiated their personal multilingual official personal websites managed by a board of advisors, office staff, translators, and theology students. Additional special projects were also launched by other leading clerics. Grand Ayatollah Yousef Saane'i (b. 1927) hosted a special chat room during the month of Ramadan. Internet users were encouraged to raise questions for Saane'i regarding human rights, religion, and women's rights during fixed hours of the day.[49] By supplying immediate and direct answers online to such questions relating to permission to use contraceptives, to inquiring whether or not looking at a non-Muslim woman's body parts is lawful, and even asking for guidance in voting in presidential elections, Saane'i and other Iranian senior ayatollahs have been making themselves available and transparent to the public. The abundant activity of Iranian leading clerics on the World
Wide Web should not come as a surprise. Modern technology played
a key role in mobilizing the popular movement of the 1979 revolution
against Mohammad Reza Shah. Khomeini's oppositional messages
and teachings made their way from his exile in Various forms of information and communication networks,
promoted in In September 2006, Hojjatoleslam Hamid Shahriari, the secretary general of the Information Dissemination Supreme Council (IDSC), under the supervision of Ahmadinejad, also reported of the council's plans to expand the presence of religious content on the web for the public and of intentions to enforce the morality code over weblogs. He further remarked that different voices in cyberspace have their audiences, and it is necessary to modify and improve these voices. Therefore, he added, "we support weblogs, especially religious and Koranic ones, and guide the rest." He further stipulated that by guiding "we mean providing certain… advice and guidelines."[54] Accordingly, Ahmadinejad also requested that the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) design a national computer network, as he considered the current network insecure and precarious.[55] During a speech at the 13th Press and News Agencies Fair, he stressed that the national press did not include enough analysis and criticism, and "it is quite difficult to analyze an event, given it should be treated correctly…. Despite circulation and reducing budget, the media personnel should not disregard their major responsibilities."[56] Three months following this declaration, he confirmed weblogs to be important carriers of ideology and state propaganda, especially in exposure to youth and to international public opinion. In early August 2006, Ahmadinejad launched his personal multilingual online journal. During the special ceremony that was held for the occasion, the president promised to dedicate "five minutes per week to write in his weblog." Yet as of this writing, as he himself has admitted, urgent matters of the state have kept him from frequent blogging. As leading politicians have openly joined Weblogistan, the
authorities began endorsing religious and Koranic weblogs and
promoting their public exposure.[57] Seminary
students in The embracing of the internet and later of Weblogistan by
the state's officials and leading clerics has made the Islamic
Republic more transparent for the Iranian public and the outside
world. It has managed to display some of CONCLUSION Weblogistan, similar to the blogosphere in particular and the global inter-connective cyber-sphere in general, is still a relatively new and highly dynamic phenomenon that has not yet run its full course. Constant growth of internet accessibility, technological evolution, and changing policies towards the medium have far-reaching effects over patterns of social behavior online, which are difficult to predict. Nonetheless, weblogging has already had a revolutionary effect
on the mainstream media and on global interactions. *Dr.
Liora Hendelman-Baavur is a Research Fellow at the Center
for Iranian Studies and a lecturer at
the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, both
at Tel Aviv University. She is also co-editor of Iran-Pulse and
continues to research the social and political implications
of new communication technologies in the Islamic NOTES [1] According to Technorati's State of the Live Web Report for April 2007, the leading languages in terms of blog posting volume are Japanese (37 percent), English (36 percent), and Chinese (eight percent). See: http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html. See also: Kyumars Sheykh Esmaili, Mohsen Jamali, Mahmood Neshati, Hassan Abolhassani, and Yasaman Soltan-Zadeh, "Experiments on Persian Weblogs." (Tehran: Sharif University of Technology, 2006), submitted to the WWW2006 Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystem, Edinburgh, May 2006, http://www.blogpulse.com/www2006-workshop/papers/persian-weblogs.pdf, and Technorati's October 2006 report: http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000443.html. [3] See: Boutorabi's interview with the Iranian Student's News Agency (ISNA), November 20, 2006, http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-828181. [4] This review is based on ongoing research focusing on the social and political implications of new communication technologies in the Islamic Republic of Iran. [5] "The 15 enemies of the Internet and other countries to watch," Reporters Without Borders, November 17, 2005, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15613. [6] The term "weblog" was introduced in 1997. It is attributed to the American blogger Jorn Barger. [7] Nasrin Alavi, We Are [8] Alireza Doostdar, "The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging: On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan," American Anthropologist, Vol. 106, No. 4 (December 2004), p. 651. [9] Erin Simmons, The Impact of the Weblog: A Case Study of the United States and Iran, Senior thesis presented in the Political Science Department at the Undergraduate Colleges of the Ohio State University (June 2005), p. 2. [10] Dan Gilmore, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism
by the People, for the People ( [11] For the Blogherald count, see: http://www.blogherald.com/2006/02/02/the-blog-herald-blog-count-february-2006-200-million-blogs-in
-existence/. For Technorati's updated report, see: [12] Caslon Analytics Profile: Web Logs and Blogging, http://www.caslon.com.au/weblogprofile1.htm. [13] Suzanne Stefanac, Dispatches from Blogistan:
A Travel Guide for the Modern Blogger ( [14] Quentin Jones, "Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1997), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue3/jones.html. [15] Steve Fox, "The New Imagined Community: Identifying and Exploring a Bidirectional Continuum Integrating Virtual and Community Embodiment Model (CEM)," Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 28, No. 1 (January 2004), pp. 47-62. [16] Michael Hauben and Ronda Hauben, Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet (Los Alamitos: IEEE-Computer Society, 1997). [17] For the extensive growth of the budget of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications see: Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), 2004-2005, http://eamar.sci.org.ir. [18] On the internet in [19] From 2000 to 2006, the [20] Library of Congress--Federal Research Division, Country
Profile: [21] Azadeh Moaveni, Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of
Growing Up Iranian in [22] Abbas William Samii, "The Contemporary Iranian News Media, 1998-1999," MERIA Journal, Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 1999); Abbas William Samii, "Sisyphus' Newsstand: The Iranian Press under Khatami," MERIA, Vol. 5, No. 3 (September 2001), http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2001/issue3/jv5n3a1.html. See also: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), A Worldwide Survey: Attacks on the Press in 2005, http://www.cpj.org/attacks05/mideast05/iran_05.html. [23] Gholam Khiabany and Annabelle Sreberny, "The Iranian Press and the Continuing Struggle Over Civil Society 1998-2000," International Communication Gazette, Vol. 63, Nos. 2-3 (2001), pp. 203-23. [24] Based on the Iranian Ministry of Information and communication Technology estimates for 2006, http://www.dci.co.ir/. [25] Fars News Agency, Social News, February 15, 2006 (No. 8411260563), http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8411260563. [26] The data collected for this paper is based on Iranian WSPs' (Weblog Service Providers) general classification for October 2006. However, since not all hosts present the exact categorization, several topics (such as culture, history, and art) were combined for purposes of unification. It is important to note that figures presented by the four weblog hosts that were checked tend to include both active and inactive weblogs. They are also based on the initial categorization of each weblog, which in some cases may change over time. [27] Based on data collected during April 2007 from Alexa Traffic Ranking, http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500. [28] Boutorabi's interview with ISNA, November 20, 2006, http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-828181. [29] In 1994, Iranian academic institutes joined the
global network, and in 1998, the Iranian National Academic
Network (INAN) was established, linking 230 scientific centers.
The same year 11 universities across the country initiated
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) departments.
For a detailed overview, see, for example: Ahmadreza Ashrafologhalaei, E-governance:
E-state in [30] See, for example: Nart Villeneuve, "The Filtering Matrix: Integrated Mechanisms of Information Control and the Demarcation of Borders in Cyberspace," First Monday, Vol. 11, No. 1 (January 2006), http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_1/villeneuve/. [31] Alireza Doostdar has addressed yet another troubling phenomenon connected with Weblogistan as a site that also enables vulgar discussions, occasional use of aggressive tones, and offensive biased remarks. See: Alireza Doostdar, "The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging," pp. 651-62. [32] The legislature considered ending the 1995 ban on satellite dishes and receivers in 2001 and again in 2002. Despite the ongoing ban and its arbitrary enforcement, satellite dishes are very popular and are sold on the black market. [33] Until 2006, the state had a monopoly over the telecommunications market, with the exception of retail internet service provision. [34] The protest initiated a widely advertised online campaign for "one million signatures demanding changes in discriminatory laws," which aims to collect one million signatures to advance reform in women and children's legal rights. See: http://kosoof.com/archive/304.php. [35] "Taking Tougher Line on Internet, Authorities Try Cyber-Dissident and Draft Harsh Bill," Reporters Without Borders, August 3, 2004, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=11066. [36] Freedom House, Country Report: Iran 2006, http://www.freedomhouse.org, and also the updated report for the following year, "Freedom in the World 2007," http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/press_release/iran_FIW_07.pdf. [37] " [39] Hadi Ghaemi, "For [42] RSF, March 29, 2005, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12655. [43] Due to the use of various filtering software, websites and weblogs that are blocked on one Iranian ISP could be accessible on another. [44] For a review on filtering technology with an emphasis on the Iranian case, see: Villeneuve, "The Filtering Matrix: Integrated Mechanisms of Information Control and the demarcation of Borders in Cyberspace." [45] Private ISPs must be approved by both the DCI (Data Communication Company) and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. [46] See: Jadi, "Opposing Women and Internet in the Third Millennium,'" posted on http://www.jadi.net/. [47] For the announcement, see: http://www.samandehi.ir/about.php. [48] "It is Enemy's Tactic to Focus on Propagation and Cultural Attack," February 16, 2006. [50] Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and Ali Mohammadi, Small Media, Big Revolution (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1994), p. 119. [51] TAKFA is the acronym in Farsi of the "National Information and Communication Technology Agenda." [52] For details, see: http://www.takfa.ir/ and
also, Ahmadreza Ashrafologhalaei, "E-governance:
E-state in [55] Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), July 31, 2006, http://www.president.ir/eng/ahmadinejad/cronicnews/1385/05/09/index-e.htm#b3. [56] IRNA, May 8, 2006, [57] Koranic weblogs are composed by at least three main groups: those who focus on the meanings and interpretations of Koranic verses, those who conduct research on the Koran, and those who study the historical importance of the stories mentioned in the Koran. Religious weblogs are dedicated to issues pertaining to the daily ritual and moral practices of Islam. [58] See,
for example: Robert Tait, " [59]Iranian Quran News Agency (IQNA), March 3, 2006, http://iqna.ir/en/news_detail.php?ProdID=44881. [60] One notable group is The Muslim Bloggers. Another group is Khomeini's Offspring--bloggers dedicated to continuing Khomeini's way and promoting his objectives. [61] Elaine Sciolino, "Cleric Uses Weapon of
Religion Against [62] http://bameazadi8.blogfa.com/post-1.aspx. MERIA Journal
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