Iran blocks TV, radio and phones – but web proves more difficult

Iran blocks TV, radio and phones – but web proves more difficult

In its campaign to jam foreign news sources, Tehran is engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with internet users

guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 June 2009 14.30 BST
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Iran is engaged in a widespread clampdown on broadcast, mobile phone and internet communications in response to the country's contested election results.

The BBC has called on those responsible in Iran to stop interfering with its broadcasts. The intensive jamming is disrupting not only BBC Persian TV but TV broadcasts to the Middle East and Europe, according to the BBC World Service director, Peter Horrocks.

It is unclear who is interfering with the broadcasts, but Horrocks said satellite technicians had traced the source of interference to Iran. He said the interference fitted into "a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election". Horrocks wrote on the BBC Editors' blog: "Any attempt to block this channel is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication."

Jamming over-the-air transmissions such as radio and satellite is not difficult: simply generating interference on the frequencies the broadcast uses will suffice. Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC's global news division, said he was worried satellite operators might drop news channels if the interference affected other commercial communications operations too widely.
The Iranian regime also appears to be selectively shutting down parts of the mobile phone network.

The internet is slightly more difficult to block because it is designed to circumvent problems, even if that problem is government censorship. However, in countries such as Iran and China, the government controls much of the infrastructure and can cut down on the number of alternative pathways.

In a 2007 report, the OpenNet Initiative said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran has installed one of the most extensive technical filtering systems in the world". Iran requires all internet providers to go through state-controlled gateways, and providers must employ filtering software. Reformist party websites, the photo-sharing site Flickr, foreign blog sites and social networks such as Facebook are often blocked in Iran.

Sophisticated users are able to route through alternate pathways to bypass government-controlled gateways. Information on how to do this is being passed around on Twitter to allow Iranians free access to the internet, but this can be a cat-and-mouse game.

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/15/iran-jamming-technology-tv-radio-internet