An Official from the Ministry of Culture: Iran's National Media is Telegram

An official from Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance pointed out that there are between 40 to 45 million Iranian users of the messaging app 'Telegram', stating, 'In fact, Iran's national media is Telegram.' Hamidreza Ziaei-Pour, the director of the Media Studies and Planning Office at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, said on Wednesday at a specialized seminar on media and economy, 'Over 60 percent of the people have access to the internet, approximately 55 million people, of which between 40 to 45 million use Telegram, and in fact, Iran's national media is Telegram.' This director attributed the filtering of Telegram to its public popularity, adding, 'They formed a contraction policy, but the people did not abandon it.' Hamidreza Ziaei-Pour named 'Instagram' as the second virtual media in Iran and 'Twitter' as the third. He stated that Twitter, with 10 million users, mostly consists of politically active individuals, forming a 'noble group' that is also a 'reference group.' Telegram and Twitter are filtered in Iran, and judicial officials have recently mentioned the possibility of filtering Instagram, yet some government officials in Iran use Twitter. Abolhassan Firouzabadi, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of Iran, threatened in September this year that if Instagram does not cooperate with the Islamic Republic, it will face the same fate as Telegram. Javad Javidnia, the head of the Cyber Affairs Department of the Attorney General's Office, also recently stated, 'Scholars and students are calling for the filtering of Instagram.' Last August, Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, the deputy attorney general, deemed the request by Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the Minister of Communications, to discuss lifting the Twitter ban in a working group meeting as 'illegal' and 'contrary to legal principles,' announcing that this social network would not be unblocked. The debate over filtering Telegram has been a contentious issue among government officials and judicial authorities since 2015, escalating to a temporary ban during protests in several Iranian cities in December 2017. Ultimately, Telegram's activities were banned in May this year by Bijan Qasemzadeh, the investigator of the second branch of the Tehran Culture and Media Prosecutor's Office. Nevertheless, despite efforts to replace domestic messaging apps and support for these domestic apps, a survey conducted by ISPA in July this year revealed that 79 percent of Telegram users continue to use the platform despite its blockage. According to the director of the Media Studies and Planning Office, 'Media authority in the country has shifted from domestic media to foreign media.' This ministry official also mentioned President Hassan Rouhani's desire to shift media authority back to Iran's domestic media. Hamidreza Ziaei-Pour emphasized, 'The era of ignoring social media is over, and we have entered the era of individual media. A single individual can create an 8-magnitude media earthquake.' He noted that 'we have few independent media,' stating that 'out of 10,000 media licenses issued, half are active.' According to this Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance official, 'Economic or artistic publications are in the private sector, but most publications are either directly dependent on the government or indirectly rely on the government for sustenance.' Reporters Without Borders recently named the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the five largest prisons for journalists in the world in a report recounting violence against journalists in 2018. The NGO Article 19 also reported that the occupational hazards for journalists reached the highest level in a decade in 2018, citing internet content filtering in Iran, Russia, and China, and considering severe penalties for critics in these countries.