Tehran (AsiaNews) – Under new press rules, writing about any political parties or groups will require government approval. Online press agencies and private websites will also fall under the power of government censorship. The Ahmadinejad administration is thus poised to turn the screw on the media and limit press freedom even more than it has so far. The president’s plan to amend the Press Law violates however a ban by the Guardians Council to change to the law.

In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), Commander Alireza Afshar, the newly appointed head of the Commission 10 on Political Parties who also serves as deputy interior minister for political affairs, said that “[p]ublications and other media outlets are forbidden from writing about parties or political groups that have not obtained a license from the Commission 10 on Political Parties. For this purpose, a list of all parties and political groups that have obtained a license will be sent to the press.”

Prior to Afshar’s announcement, a government spokesperson stated that the Ahmadinejad administration would amend the Press Law to expand its jurisdiction to include online news agencies and websites.

A report by the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the drafter of the bill saying that “[d]uring the drafting and passage of the Press Law, virtual media and electronic publications were not as active and news agencies and websites were not as expansive as they are today. As such, the legislator had not paid attention to legal benefits of limits to the activities of these types of media.”

In reporting the matter Rooz, an opposition online publication, noted that the president is exceeding his authority since the Guardians Council had explicitly ruled that changing the law was unconstitutional and a violation of the Sharia as laid down in a letter by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.