Press Supervisory Board Reiterates: Violators of Electoral Guidelines Will Face Whipping

The Press Supervisory Board, on the eve of the 14th presidential election in Iran, has published guidelines regarding the 1403 elections, which stipulate that violators of certain parts of these guidelines will face 74 lashes, similar to previous directives from this board. The guidelines, released on Thursday, June 7, state that publishing content to boycott and reduce participation in the elections, as well as holding any type of 'unauthorized protest, strike, or sit-in', constitutes 'criminal content'. The guidelines also specify that according to Article 74 of the Presidential Election Law, all visual, audio, written, electronic media, and other virtual networks 'are not allowed to publish advertisements or articles against electoral candidates or write content indicating the withdrawal of groups or individuals from specific candidates', and in the event of such violations, they must promptly publish the responses of the mentioned candidates. Article 91 of the Election Law is also referenced, stating that in case of violation of the content of Article 74, 'the publication or news website or SMS center and virtual networks may be suspended for one to three months, and the manager of the publication or news website or SMS center and virtual networks will be sentenced to lashes up to seventy-four. If the author of the article is identified, this punishment will also apply to the author.' These threats of corporal punishment against journalists come at a time when the holding of various elections in recent years in Iran has reached its lowest level due to widespread disqualifications and the government's efforts to homogenize politics in Iran and violently suppress public protests. This decrease in participation has reached a point where even reformist forces, who usually participate in elections under any circumstances, showed no interest in participating in the elections for the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts. Another part of the new guidelines from the Press Supervisory Board includes penalties for cases of 'disturbing public opinion, blackening and stating false information against the country, creating divisions among social classes, especially through the presentation of ethnic and racial issues, publishing any results of false polling regarding the elections and presidential candidates'. The publication and promotion of signs of election boycotts, the dissemination of satire or any insulting or defamatory content in cyberspace against the elections, the publication of any content containing insults, defamation, and dissemination of falsehoods against the system, the three branches of government, governmental organizations, and electoral supervisory bodies, as well as the publication of any classified content related to elections, are also among the other examples of criminal content that do not require a private complainant. The lack of need for a private complainant means that the public prosecutor can directly or based on the opinion of the working group determining the examples of criminal content, file charges against individuals and media deemed 'violators'. The Islamic Republic has for years exerted pressure on political and civil activists under vague and general titles such as disturbing public opinion and actions against national security, detaining and convicting them. The extension of these criminal titles to electoral guidelines, given the opinions expressed by various political and cultural figures and ordinary users on social media, could broaden the government's scope for judicial actions against these expressions. Ebrahim Raisi, the former president of Iran and his entourage, were killed on May 20 of this year during a helicopter crash, and for this reason, the presidential election in Iran will be held earlier than scheduled. Following his death, the Iranian judiciary arrested or summoned several citizens due to their positions regarding this incident.