It appears that the TCI (Telecommunication Company of Iran), has filtered Sobhaneh, a popular collaborative news blog in Persian. According to comments by its readers comments, some local ISPs such as Pars Online, Kavosh, Alborz, and Safineh have blocked the wesbite too.
Speaking in Geneva, Iran's President Mohammad Khatami insisted that the country only blocks access to 240 "pornographic and immoral" websites. He said the ban only applies to sites that are incompatible with Islam, and a government official added that "all political sites are free". He added that the government will publish the blacklist.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information Technology Ahmad Motamedi said to DailySummit.net that the private ISPs already have the blacklist. He refused to say whether the Minister is finally going to publicize the blacklist or not.
Sources:
- BBC News online
- DailySummit.net
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.
Sources:
- BBC News Online
- DailySummit.net
We are getting emails saying that Google Cache is now accessable again. Some persian weblogs (FarsTec and Panjereh) have written about this.
Cara Swift, from the Daily Summit blog, asks about the real size of Net censorship in Iran and provides some links and background information.
Update:
- The post has attracted over hundred comments and has become an interesting place for Western journalists to read first-hand experiences by Iranians about the Net censorship in Iran.
Apparently, Iranian Telecommunication Company, the main Internet Provider in Iran, has completely filtered Google Cached version of webpages.
Source: E:M Persian
Minister of Communication, Mr. Ahmad Motamedi, has recently said that a blacklist of Iranian weblogs and news websites exists and all major Iranian ISPs, who are actually the Internet access wholesalers, must only block those websites and nothing else. (The list hasn't officially published yet.) He has also mentioned that he personally doesn't like the censorship, but added that a committee outside the ministery is deciding about the list. He has talked about new softwares that the ministery have recently bought to make the censorship more effective and precise.
Source: ISNA