Iranian lawmakers are debating the details of a bill meant to curb “foreign influence,” including provisions that would criminalize contact with reporters for international outlets deemed hostile to the Islamic Republic — imposing penalties of up to two years in prison.
The push comes nearly six months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran with no immediate diplomatic breakthrough in sight and in the wake of the Iranian government’s violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year, during which it imposed internet blackouts and restrictions meant to contain information and stifle dissent.
Last week, Iran’s parliament approved a preliminary outline of the bill, which would make illegal contact with many foreign institutions, including reporters, the media, universities and embassies. The bill has not reached its final stages, and each of its 33 articles will go under review before a review by the influential 12-member Guardian Council, state media reported — a process that analysts said is still far off.
The framework was put forward by Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, according to draft text published by the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency.
Among activities that could face restrictions unless authorized by the Intelligence Ministry, the text lists talking to international media outlets or providing them with information and analysis, along with scientific exchanges and cultural activities including participating in workshops or showing documentary film.
ISNA reported that the plan has faced criticism within Iran over a vague, broad definition of “influence.” The administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose influence has diminished during the conflict in favor of more hard-line figures, opposes the measures, ISNA reported.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the proposed restrictions.
Iran already imposes extensive measures that restrict interactions with the international media and carries out mass surveillance. Reporters Without Borders ranks Iran 177th out of 180 countries on the organization’s Global Press Freedom Index.
While “authorities have long punished people for communicating with foreign media and organizations,” what is new is the “attempt to put a vast range of ordinary interactions with the outside world … under a formal system of state registration, surveillance, and security approval,” said Bahar Ghandehari, director of advocacy at the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
“The combination of vague offenses, unchecked security-agency discretion, and severe criminal penalties will inevitably encourage self-censorship,” she said, adding that journalists, academics, students, artists, civil society organizations and ordinary citizens “cannot know whether a legitimate interaction today will be characterized as a security offense tomorrow.”
“While Iranian journalists continue to be imprisoned for doing their jobs, restricting interaction with the international media would further silence the Iranian people,” International Federation of Journalists General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said in a statement about the bill.
This month, Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery learned she was sentenced to 15 years in prison over allegations of providing photographs and interviews to outlets and organizations deemed hostile, Reuters reported.
“The IRGC raided my home and confiscated my mobile phone, laptop, and some of my electronic equipment. A month later, because I had taken photographs during the 44-day war, they raided my home again,” she told the outlet. The photographer said she was subject to interrogations, was tried in absentia and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“None of these sentences, however, has ever caused me to abandon my path, even for a moment. I have continued to document and show the realities of Iranian society and Iranian people,” Moaiery said.
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