Iranian Television Banned from Displaying Images of Rafsanjani?

After Hashemi Rafsanjani reasserted his position over the June 2009 tenth presidential elections and its aftermath in Iran, the pro-administration media launched a new wave of verbal and written attacks on the veteran politician and head of the powerful Assembly of Experts on Leadership. One official at the ministry of Islamic guidance, which supervises Internet activities in the country, announced that Rafsanjani’s website lacked the necessary operating permit. In response, Rafsanjani’s website revealed other restrictions and said that the state-run television network was refraining from airing Rafsanjani’s images.

Mehdi Sarami, a deputy at the ministry of Islamic guidance told Fars news agency – which is affiliated to the country’s security-military establishment – “Hashemi Rafsanjani’s website has till now not been registered in the Iranian Internet database and therefore it lacks an identity and a permit.”

In response to a question whether sites that did not have a license were allowed to operate, said, “Such sites must be registered and it is clear that if a site is not it will not enjoy the legal benefits and other material and intellectual assistance and protection that is available in the country’s cyberspace.”

Rafsanjani’s website is available in three languages, Persian, Arabic and English and posts daily reports on the views of the head of the Expediency Council and the Chairman of the Assembly of Experts on Leadership. The site also published Rafsanjani’s memoirs on a daily basis covering the events since the 1979 revolution.

These remarks by a government official come a week after Rafsanjani told a group of students from Gilan University that he continued to believe in his views regarding the 2009 presidential elections, and he referenced his Friday prayer speech on this in the presence of other Green Movement leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi and Mohammad Khatami, and thousands of others. In that talk, Rafsanjani criticized the Guardians Council for prematurely confirming the legality of the 2009 presidential election and also suggested respect for law, release of political prisoners and gaining the support of the masses as ways to resolve the current impasse.

In response to Sarami’s remarks Rafsanjani’s website wrote that the chairman’s identity did not stem from the site or other sites for the ministry to deny it.

It should be noted that government officials had blocked access to the site of another reformist, Mohammad Khatami. An announcement on that had specified that Khatami’s website would be blocked because it was found to be in violation of relevant regulations. In addition to his site, the government has also banned the activities of Khatami’s research center, the Baran Foundation.