
The level of censorship in Iran from the 28th of August coup until now / Reza Najafi
According to the report by “Reporters Without Borders”, Iran has the worst censorship situation in the world, after three countries: Turkmenistan, North Korea, and Eritrea. This censorship takes place in various forms such as newspapers, films, online space, television and satellite networks, and books. This report briefly looks at the censorship of books and newspapers in Iran after the August 28 coup during the second Pahlavi era until the recent period.
Types of Censorship
In Iran and generally in other countries, censorship takes place more or less in three areas and with three motives or perspectives.
Firstly, political censorship is imposed by those in power to control their opponents and political rivals, and to establish the hegemony of the official ideology of the government system.
Second; Moral and social censorship that authorities use to preserve the values of society.
Third; Religious censorship, which is carried out by those in charge of supervision under the pretext of preserving religion and religious values, involves censoring works that are in conflict or competition with the teachings of the official religion of society.
It should be noted that although all three types of censorship existed during both the first and second Pahlavi periods, as well as the Islamic Republic, after the revolution, censorship has been carried out with more intensity and severity under the pretext of moral and religious reasons. As a result, in addition to the political sphere, it has extended its control and strict supervision to more comprehensive areas.
General methods of censorship
In general, censorship methods are divided into several forms.
First; Pre-publication censorship: In this method, newspapers, books, and other cultural products are reviewed before publication and, if deemed appropriate by censors, are censored, modified, or even confiscated. While in many countries, except in special cases, there is no pre-publication censorship, for example in works for children and adolescents, in Iran, and in both periods, this type of supervision has been established and after the revolution, stricter measures are taken, especially for book publishing. In addition, the length of time it takes to review a book in the Islamic Republic has turned into a form of indirect censorship.
Second; Censorship after publication: Sometimes, due to technical reasons such as lack of accuracy and speed in controlling newspaper content, censorship may occur after publication. In this case, the book or magazine in question will be dealt with and sometimes the publisher or author will be pursued.
Third; Extra-legal Censorship: In addition to specific laws and regulations for censorship, extra-legal censorship also occurs. For example, pressure groups have created obstacles and problems for the publication, distribution, or even censorship agents who, beyond the government’s approved laws, have taken personal preferences and even violated official laws to create barriers, restrictions, and confiscation of a work. This type of censorship has also been seen more after the revolution than in previous periods.
Fourth; Censorship in other ways: Sometimes, agents have censored by creating obstacles, for example by not providing services to publishers, or creating economic barriers.
Censorship in Iran after the August 19 coup.
After the coup on August 19, 1953, a department called “Censorship Department” was established in the Ministry of Culture and Arts, which was responsible for censoring publications, including books and newspapers, and monitoring the publication of religious books. However, political censorship was still under the control of Savak.
In the 1334 law draft approved by the Joint Commission of the Parliament in August, which was formulated after the coup of August 28, for the first time in Iran’s media laws, the power to grant permission for the publication of newspapers and magazines was revoked from the Ministry of Interior and the Press Commission. Additionally, the 1334 media draft granted the local governorate the power to shut down a newspaper or magazine.
After August 28th, the governments did not pay attention to the regulations of the 1334 legal bill to restrict the media, and continued their arbitrary decisions and actions to gain more control over the media. For example, a resolution was passed on February 25th, 1963 during the first term of Prime Minister Assadollah Alam and the Ministry of Interior under Jahangir Tafazoli, which went against Article 20 of the supplementary constitution, to suspend and shut down newspapers. The minimum circulation threshold for newspapers was set at three thousand and for magazines at five thousand, which meant that publications in Tehran could not have a circulation lower than these numbers. Although the commission mentioned in the resolution was never formed, twelve years later, in late August 1974, dozens of newspapers and magazines were suddenly suspended and shut down with a phone call from the Ministry of Intelligence. Gholamreza Kianpour, the Minister of Intelligence at the time, used this same resolution to
Furthermore, “post-printing and pre-publication censorship” was a plan that was implemented by Amir Abbas Hoveyda. After the establishment of the “Rastakhiz Party” in 1345, Savak directly controlled a large portion of publications through the Ministry of Education, Welfare, and the Organization of Tourist Attractions (modern-day tourism). The result of this control was a monopoly and restrictions on a narrower range, leading to a sharp decline in the number of titles in the publishing market in the late 1940s. (3)
Book censorship during the second Pahlavi era was initially carried out by the “Editing Department” (current Book Department) under the Ministry of Culture and Art. The reviews of this department had no laws or guidelines for book censorship and were subject to personal preferences. Without any framework, they would automatically remove anything they deemed potentially troublesome, such as the censorship of Shakespeare’s books due to the possibility of insulting the king. The National Library, despite its heavy symbolic burden, also had another important responsibility. At that time, it was required to send three copies of each book to the National Library for registration. This registration number not only made it easier for the censors to access the books, but also made it difficult for the authors and publishers due to self-censorship. In the 1342 law establishing the Ministry of Information, it was mentioned that the supervision of the implementation of the first article of the Press Law was the responsibility of the Ministry of Information. After changing its name and expanding its
The sudden rise and fall of the media.
During the last few months of the Pahlavi government, publications were faced with the blessing of reduced censorship and even in the final days leading up to the February 1979 revolution, they were confronted with its complete removal. As a result, it was expected that after the revolution, the media would experience a period of prosperity. In the early months after the revolution, we witnessed the presence of numerous newspapers with various political, social, and other themes, many of which did not have an owner or managing editor and were only published for the first 5 months of the revolution, with a total of 67 daily, weekly, and monthly publications in Tehran and other cities. However, this freedom of expression did not last long and extensive crackdowns on the media began, possibly for the first time in the month of 1358 (1979-1980), when nearly 22 newspapers and magazines were confiscated. Some of these publications belonged to organizations and political parties, such as Peykar,
After the revolution, censorship implementing institutions
Officially, a specific department in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, called the Book Inspection and Censorship Department, is responsible for monitoring and censoring books; however, many other institutions also collaborate with this department. These include the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the Ministry of Science and Technology in policy-making, and other institutions such as the Offices of Inspection, Selection, political and ideological institutions, monitoring organizations, Basij Offices, and groups promoting good and forbidding wrong in the implementation of censorship. It should also be noted that the Media Violations Committee is responsible for controlling the press.
Different forms and methods of censorship in the modern era
Censorship is implemented in various forms in Iran. The most common methods are as follows:
First; censorship of parts of the work, which includes removing parts of the book, from removing certain chapters to removing certain phrases and sentences, is done. For example, Milan Kundera’s novel “The Joke” received permission to be published by removing one chapter from the book and countless other examples.
Secondly, changing some words and sentences. For example, the novel “Journey to the East” by Herman Hesse was allowed to be published on the condition of changing the name Fatemeh, which was the name of the hero’s beloved, to another name. Censors in Iran automatically change words in novels and sometimes even in technical books or dictionaries, such as changing “wine” to “beverage”, “pork” to “beef”, “breasts” to “chest”, “Israel” to “Palestine”, “Jerusalem” to “Al-Quds”, “tavern” to “cafe”, etc.
Third; not allowing the publication of an entire work. Sometimes, the censor is not satisfied with just censoring specific parts or changing phrases and declares a book completely unpublishable. There are numerous examples of this. To illustrate, we will mention a few cases, such as: The Gambler by Dostoevsky, Laughter in the Dark by Nabokov, Our Grandmothers’ House by Julio Cortázar, Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, Ulysses by James Joyce, and so on.
Fourth; confiscation or censorship of books with printing license in the reprinting stage. During the presidency of Ahmadinejad, it was announced that the licenses of books issued by the previous government, especially during the Khatami era, are not valid and must be requested again. Some examples of books that were not granted permission for reprinting in this process include: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Blindness by Saramago, The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis, all works by Paulo Coelho, and others. In some cases, even books that were granted printing licenses by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance during the Ahmadinejad government were confiscated and collected; for example, Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Marquez.
Fifth; Boycott of some publishers. In some cases, regardless of which book a publisher submits to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for a license, their books are boycotted by the censorship office due to the fact that the publisher’s name is on the government’s blacklist for various reasons. For example, books published by Agah Publications, despite having a publishing license, have been left unanswered at the censorship office for years and do not receive a license.
Sixth; Boycott of some writers or translators. The works of some writers or even translators, regardless of whether the work itself is considered flawed or not, do not have a chance to be published due to the inclusion of the writer or translator’s name in the Ministry of Guidance’s blacklist. For example, the works of Freud, Max Weber (after Ayatollah Khomeini’s attack on Western humanities), Sadeq Hedayat, Paulo Coelho, and generally works of writers or translators who are opposed or critical of the Islamic Republic or even its current leader. Interestingly, this list also includes religious or former revolutionary individuals and founders of the Islamic Republic. For example, many of Ayatollah Beheshti’s works are now not allowed to be published, or after expressing some mild criticisms by Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is still considered one of the leaders of the Islamic Republic, his seventh volume of memoirs titled “Towards Destiny” was first confiscated and then published
Seventh; Cancellation of Publishing License. Some publishers faced the cancellation of their publishing license, including Cheshme Publishing, whose director was also the head of the Iranian Publishers Union, or Karavan Publications, whose director was forced to leave the country due to the martyrdom of Neda Agha-Soltan, one of the protesters of the street protests by government forces.
Eighth; Other Methods. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, throughout all these years, has also used other methods to disrupt the work of critical publishers, including not allowing them to participate in international book fairs, not providing them with government paper, not purchasing their books for library networks, long delays in issuing printing licenses, delays in granting permission for books to leave the printing house, boycotting these publishers and their works in festivals and government publications, bureaucratic obstacles, and so on.
Sources:
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For further study, refer to:
Najafi, Reza, a summary of censorship in Iran from the beginning until today, Khatt-e-Solh monthly magazine, issue 37, page 9.
“Najafi, Reza, A Look at the Black Market for Books in Iran and the Legal Absence of Copyright, Khat-e-Solh Monthly, No. 32, p. 12.”
2- Asadi Tari, Mohammad Hassan, A Look at the Historical Evolution of Press Law and Censorship in Iran.
A Look at the Audit from the Qajar Era to the Revolution, Iranian History Website quoted from Shargh Newspaper, 9 September 2011.
4- Previous.
5- Sa’i, Mansour, Freedom of the Press after the Revolution – Ups and Downs, Aftab, 21 December 2006.

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