Iran Pulls Plug on Websites

NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press
February 15, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian authorities banned five Web sites that comment on current events for “poisoning” public opinion ahead of the crucial mid-March parliamentary elections, the state radio reported on Thursday.

The move is the latest in an election period which has seen the Interior Ministry, run by hard-liners close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, disqualify more than 2,000 prospective candidates — most of them reformers.

About 280 of those candidates were reinstated Tuesday by the Guardian Council, Iran’s hard-line constitutional watchdog. But reformists have complained the reversal was insufficient to ensure a fair election.

In the past, the authorities have occasionally closed down some of the hundreds of private Web sites that comment on Iranian news and politics. But this was the first time they closed down five at once — a reflection of growing tension ahead of the vote.

The radio said Tehran General Prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, ordered the ban because the Web sites were “poisoning the electoral sphere.” It did not name any of the sites, but a report by Web site of state broadcasting company identified one of them as Nosazi, which in Farsi means Reconstruction. The site is considered hard-line and reflective of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stance.

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