AFP: Iran is encouraging people who receive “immoral” messages on their mobile phones to report them to the judiciary and receive a reward, a press report said on Sunday. TEHRAN, June 24, 2007 (AFP) – Iran is encouraging people who receive “immoral” messages on their mobile phones to report them to the judiciary and receive a reward, a press report said on Sunday.
“There are rewards for those who report senders of immoral MMSs to the judiciary,” the head of Iran’s telecommunications company, Vafa Ghaffarian was quoting as saying by the Etemad daily.
Iran has said it would seek to block and censor immoral multimedia messages which have recently become available in Iran, where text-messaging is already massively popular.
Iran applies tough censorship on cultural products and internet access, banning thousands of websites and blogs containing sexual and politically critical material as well as women’s rights and social networking sites.
Mobile phone owners can put in an official complaint against the senders of offensive messages who will be fined and lose their subscription.
During a recent crackdown on vice and unIslamic dressers, there were reports of police checking mobile phones in some parts of the capital in search of illicit content.
Iranian officials have acknowledged there is a problem with the clandestine videoing of women in swimming pools, changing rooms and other private situations in a country where there is strict segregation of sexes.
The images are then distributed on the black market or on mobile phones — the most notorious example an Iranian soap star who was allegedly filmed having sex with her boyfriend in a video that surfaced earlier this year.
