TEHRAN, Nov 27 (IPS) - Iranian officials have scorned the labelling of this country by a journalists' rights watchdog as one of the world's 13 Internet 'black holes' and said they will continue to protect what they claim are the morals of society.
In a report released earlier this month, the Paris-based Reporters Without Frontiers had named Iran, along with countries like China, Belarus, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, as 'enemies' of the Internet for restricting access to it and jailing cyber journalists and bloggers.
Reacting, the secretary to Iran's Informatics High Council said that this country defines its values differently from those in the West. "If freedom of speech is against cultural values, it must be prevented. All countries in the world use filtering because freedom (of speech) shouldn't turn into (freedom of) prostitution," he was quoted as saying by the Iranian Labour News Agency.
More than one-tenth of Iran's 70 million people use the Internet and the figure is increasing very rapidly. Cyber cafes have for several years been popular hangouts for young people who use the net to chat, find new music and films, and also for news and research.
Iran's rulers have been well aware of the influence of the Internet and with its increasing popularity have, for several years now, been controlling access to sites through extensive filtering. A committee set up by the country's Supreme Cultural Revolution Council as well as a judiciary committee meticulously check and issue filtering orders.
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