According to Reza Parsa, director of ISP association, Data Communication Company of Iran (DCI), which is officially in charge of data infrastructure in Iran, now uses a US made software, named SmartFilter, to censor 'inappropriate' websites.
He added that Iranian-made filtering applications do not have the quality of 'foreign-made' software's and most major ISPs (Internet Connection providers or ICP) use the latter type of software. He also said that 80% of ISPs rely on DCI and ICPs for filtering.
Source: ISNA
"Webloggers are being treated according to subjective interpretations of the laws of print media," said Ali Asghar Kia, the director of Allame University communications department. "Webloggers’s rights have been denied and there is no specific law in this regard," he added.
Kia mentioned that blogosphere needs its own special laws and the laws of print media should not be applied for internet communications, since these two forms of communication are different in nature. Pointing that there are thousands of weblogs in Iran to express the personal thoughts and beliefs of their writers as a different means of communication, he asked for a form of law for webloggers that would not limit them and allow them to write freely in the frame of a relevant and reasonable law.
Source: ISNA
ITIran reports that ParsOnline, major Iranian ICP (whole-sale ISPs), has filtered some major blogging service websites, including TypePad, LiveJournal, Xanga, Pitas, SkyBlog, CrimsonBlog, UBlog, and even Tripod and Weblogs.com.
ParsOnline has always been a pioneer in internet censorship, even before official orders by the three-member committee.
ITIran also reports that despite the previous announcemnt by ISP association regarding the lift of filtering on Orkut, it is still filtered in all major ICPs.
Tehran cheif prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, reiterated after a meeting with officials from IT ministry that cooperation between the two bodies for filtering websites will continue.
He said with increasing internet usage and the growing risks posed to youth by lack of filtering, all policy making bodies in the country are resolved to filter "immoral and sacriligious" websites.
Mortazavi spoke of more meetings between the IT ministry and judiciary officials to address filtering issues.
Source: ISNA
Following the recent widespread filtering of various websites and weblogs in Iran, including Orkut, Blogger, and Persianblog, Mostafa Jahangard, the director of Information High Council expressed his concerns about the non-observance of the minimum legal requirements in this case. “I hope the three-member committee, which is the responsible authority that determines the websites that should be filtered, declares its views as soon as possible,” he added.
Insisting that no official correspondence has been communicated with the ISPs, Jahangard warned that without the least legal procedures it is impossible to organize the country’s various issues. He hoped that the Cultural Revolution High Council, which is the responsible authority to follow up such matters, investigates the filtering issue further and reverses this trend back to its logical and legal track.
Source: ISNA
BBC Persian reports that Saeed Mortazavi has personally and directly ordered the major ISPs (or ICPs as they call them in Iran) to filter Orkut and blogging service websites.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Telecom has announced in the official website that they have not ordered the filtering of Orkut and the Minister himself has said that judiciary is responsible for that.
This is a little bit unusual because so far it's been the three member committee that's been responsible for deciding about internet filtering. But now it seems that Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran's chief prosecutor, is willing to directly control and influence the major ISPs.
Mortazavi has been directly involved in the recent arrests of technicians and journalists related to a few reformist websites and is said to be responsible for torturing them.
He is also the judge who has shut down almost all reformist newspapers and magazines during the past six year and who is said to be responsible for the death of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canaidian photographer two years ago.
Sources: BBC Persian
According to a post on ITIran blog, Iranian telecom has reportedly ordered ISPs to filter Orkut, the extremely popular social networking website among Iranian.
Source: ITIran (The original page is removed, but cached version on Google is available.)