The enemy's press freedom

 

Some days ago, the United States of America took action against 33 internet news sites affiliated to the Iranians, such that these were offline for several hours.  In practice, these sites were accessible after they changed their domain names, through which they are found with a search.

 

The stoppage could easily be done as their original name was controlled by an American company, and therefore falls under American laws.  The US authorities stated that these sites were aimed at sending misinformation to the US and had a malicious intent. Moreover, it was said they were obliged to ask for a license before starting operations, which they hadn’t done.1

 

The action had a limited impact, as the sites concerned simply obtained another name through a company outside the US, and continued their work, although naturally it will take some time until their followers would notice the name change.

 

To be clear, Iran is a theocratic Islamic country, with a democracy tightly controlled by the religious establishment.  For example, recently there were elections for the President of Iran, where prospective candidates all had to be vetted by the Guardian Council, and most were not allowed to become candidates for reasons that were not published.

 

Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the constitution as long as it is not detrimental to Islamic principles,2 and in a theocratic country dominated by religious considerations, what freedom is this?

 

Iran is also one of the countries that still has capital punishment, and in 2020 is thought to have had 250 executions.3

 

I say all this as for a Maltese-Australian like me, these and similar characteristics are likely to feel out of tune.

 

Nevertheless, if a country like this wants to publish its ideas and propaganda, why should it be stopped?  Can’t one read the parts that are of interest, and then decide with which to agree or disagree?

 

I find it strange that a country that styles itself as an example of freedom and democracy, takes widespread action such as this, even when I’m sure it knows it wouldn’t last long.

 

When mentioning democracy, I really need to add a bit of qualifier, given that the US is involved.  This is a country that at the start of this same year, had a President that did his utmost to deceive with much hot air, to convince the erstwhile gullible that being buried by an electoral landslide was actually a ‘bigly’ victory;  which has states ruled by his side of politics up to this minute doing everything in their power to make it difficult for marginal groups, like blacks and immigrants, from being able to vote in elections and participate in their democracy; and having some states also still having capital punishments on their criminal statutes.

 

And this democratic country, does it not spread misinformation?  What was that about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

 

It seems to me that the United States of America has lost a lot of its moral authority obtained when it entered the Second World War and was instrumental in changing, with its other allies, the fortunes of the war against Nazism.

 

The action taken against Iranian web sites leaves this question in my mind, what exactly was the point?

 

1https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-seizes-websites-used-iranian-islamic-radio-and-television-union-and-kata-ib, retrieved 23/6/2021

2https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/iran/Iran99o-03.htm, retrieved 23/6/2021

3https://iranintl.com/en/iran/iran-human-rights-least-267-executions-2020, retrieved 23/6/2020