It’s things like this that make you appreciate America. But don’t ask your village liberal who will spin it to make Iran look like they were pushed into it by the evil Boosh regime.
On Wednesday, Iranian members of parliament voted to discuss a draft bill that seeks to “toughen punishment for disturbing mental security in society.” The text of the bill would add, “establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,” to the list of crimes punishable by death.
In recent years, some Iranian bloggers have been sent to jail and many have had their sites filtered. If the Iranian parliament approves this draft bill, bloggers fear they could be legally executed as criminals. No one has defined what it means to “disturb mental security in society”.
Such discussion concerning blogs has not been unique to Iran. It shows that many authorities do not only wish to filter blogs, but also to eliminate bloggers!
A state policy to control blogs
About a year and a half ago, the Iranian government demanded that bloggers should register and provide their names and addresses on a site called Samandehi. Many people believed such a process would facilitate legal action against them.
Bloggers resisted and many published an “I do not register my blog/site” banner on their blogs. The Government then realised it cannot have real control of the situation, or force bloggers to register.
Related posts:
- Iran mulls death penalty for Internet crimes
- Iran Parliament Passes Death Penalty for Apostasy Bill
- Iran passes law calling for death penalty for all converts from islam
- Iran: Feminists ready to protest against bill making polygamy easier
- New Iranian Law requires death for Apostates
- Iran censors women’s rights advocates’ blogs, sites critical of regime
- Bush meets with bloggers for first time
- Iran: Millions of young people in search of ‘virtual sex’ says official report
- Iran Commander: “If attacked we will eliminate Israel”
- Obama says 9/11 jihadi could get the death penalty, then waffles
