Iran Bans Newspaper Over Article on Assad Trip

Iran on Tuesday banned reformist newspaper Ghanoon for publishing an article about a meeting between Iran's supreme leader and visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

"Ghanoon daily has received notification and its publication has been halted due to its (front page) headline on Tuesday," ISNA said.

The order stating that Ghanoon would be "temporarily banned" was delivered to the paper's management by Tehran's culture and media court, it added, without saying how long the ban would remain in place.

Assad met Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani on Monday during a surprise visit to the Islamic republic, his first since the start of the Syrian conflict.

The news agency did not elaborate on the article about their meeting, but the online version of the story was headlined "Uninvited Guest".

Ghanoon also published a front-page photo of Assad and the supreme leader embracing each other.

The reformist publication has been banned twice before in recent years.

One occasion was over a caricature deemed "offensive to governmental organizations", and the other was due to a report on an Iranian prison headlined "24 Damned Hours," according to Tasnim news agency.

Iran has been a key ally supporting Assad as he has battled to maintain his grip over Syria during nearly eight years of conflict in which more than 360,000 people have been killed.

Assad's visit to Tehran also coincided with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's shock resignation announcement via an Instagram post.

According to ISNA, Zarif was not present at any of the meetings.

The minister did not give a reason for his resignation, but Entekhab news agency said it tried to reach Zarif and received the following message: "After the photos of today's meetings, Javad Zarif no longer has any credibility in the world as the foreign minister!"

Photo Credit: IRNA

Resisting New Technology is 'Outdated' Says Iran's Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday said resistance against new technologies is "outdated" as he once again criticized the judiciary's blocking of social media.

"Resisting new technologies and modern developments is an outdated approach," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast by state television.

"We can see that some still oppose new phenomena especially those related to communication and information," he added.

Iran in recent years has blocked access to many social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and in May the judiciary blocked the Telegram messaging app.

In May Rouhani said the government does not approve of the judiciary's blockage of Telegram—the country's most popular social network with some 40 million users or around half the population. 

In his speech Monday he said preventing Iranians from accessing social would amount to creating a forbidden fruit which they would crave more.

"Filtering is not the solution. We must raise the society's digital literacy so that they can use it (social media) without being harmed by it," Rouhani said.

"We don't have free media in Iran and only have state television and radio," he said.

"Everything is congested in the cyberspace ... everyone wants to say everything in this space since they don't have any other media," he added.

In January, Iranian media said the judiciary was mulling banning Instagram, the last major platform still freely available in the country.

Despite social media restrictions, Iranians including top officials such as Rouhani himself and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif continue to use services such as Twitter, which are widely accessible via proxy servers.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran TV Boss Fired Over Jackie Chan Sex Scene

A regional boss of Iran's state broadcaster IRIB has been fired after inadvertently letting a Jackie Chan sex scene slip through its tight censorship rules, local media reported on Monday.

Viewers on Iran's Kish Island were shocked when their local TV station showed the martial arts star having sex with a prostitute in one of his films.

That is far beyond the usual limits in Iran, where men and women are not even allowed to shake hands on screen. 

There was a quick response after a viewer posted the clip online. 

"Clips of immoral scenes of a film featuring Jackie Chan have been circulating on social media which was apparently shown by Kish IRIB," the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

“These scenes which are in total contradiction with the principles of IRIB has ultimately led to the dismissal and reprimand of some of the employees of IRIB in Kish," it said, adding this included IRIB's director-general for Kish. 

There were angry responses from some Iranians pointing out that no one had been fired over a fatal bus crash that killed 10 students at Tehran's Azad University last week.  

"Buses turn over, planes crash, ships sink... no one is dismissed... A few seconds of Jackie Chan making love on IRIB and immediately all staff in that section are sacked," wrote one Twitter user.

IRIB TV presenter Reza Rashidpoor joked on his morning talk show that the controversy could have been avoided if IRIB had included a caption saying Chan was married to the actress playing the prostitute. 

He was referring to a program last week in which IRIB added a caption to say a couple holding hands on screen were married in real life. 

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

Under Pressure, Some Young Iranians Persevere, But Many Want to Flee

Some young Iranians are determined to modernize their country and rescue it from economic collapse. But facing relentless US pressure and increasing hardship, many of the educated elite simply want to leave.

On an up-market balcony in Tehran, shaded from a roasting summer sun, a string of entrepreneurs are filming success stories and advice for the next generation of start-up wannabes.

For a country supposedly on the brink of economic meltdown, the mood is surprisingly upbeat.

"We are experts in adapting to times of trouble," said Reza Ghiabi, CEO of a tech-focused consultancy firm, who calls himself an "unshakable responsible optimist".

"Many Iranians had success in the past in Berlin, Silicon Valley and London, but our generation is tired of emigrating and being just an employee. Now we're trying to create something for ourselves," he told AFP.

Everyone knows the challenges are daunting: rampant unemployment, rising prices, a crashing currency. 

None of it is helped by the return of full-scale US sanctions next month following Washington's decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal, nor the bellicose threats between President Donald Trump and Iranian officials in recent days.

"We understand this is not a good situation, but we can't just wait for things to get better. We have to do it ourselves," said Alireza Khodaie, 30,  who makes high-end shoes and is one of the organizers behind Tehran's inaugural Start-Up Week that begins on August 3.

There are a few examples that offer hope for Iran's highly educated, globalized youth: the huge success of taxi app Snapp, a slew of hip new cafes and restaurants, and tech hubs fostering everything from music streaming services to online education portals.

The more business-friendly government of President Hassan Rouhani is less suspicious than its predecessors of these Western-influenced innovations.

"We've tried to be independent in the past, but we can't ignore the government, and there are now people who understand and listen. We want to be part of policy-making," said Khodaie.   

'I Won't Find Work'

But that sort of optimism is fading among Iran's educated middle- and upper-classes, who see little prospect of political and economic change.

If officials in Washington hope that will lead to mass protests against the government, they are likely to be disappointed. The brutal response to past demonstrations, and fears that protests could degenerate into violent chaos like in Syria, have bred a weary resignation. 

Instead, most just want to leave.  

"Young people have lost all hope in their future," said 21-year-old law student Parisa.

"I've been looking for work for three months to pay for my studies and help my father. I'm a law student but I know that once my studies are finished I won't find work," she said.

"There are many who want to leave and they are right because over there, they can progress and will have a decent salary."

The US stepped up its pressure campaign this weekend, with Trump threatening unprecedented "suffering" for Iran, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announcing a renewed propaganda effort to undermine its leaders.

But that is largely background noise to Iran's youth. Around two-thirds of Iranians were born after the 1979 revolution and have grown up with the incessant back-and-forth between their government and Washington.

They are more focused on what is happening internally, and for many it was the decision in April to block the most popular social media app Telegram that was the final straw. 

"I spent two days in my room, I was so depressed," said a film editor in her 20s who campaigned for Rouhani's re-election last year when he vowed no more censorship.

"He made all these promises, and still this happened. I used to be so angry with all my friends who were leaving, but for the first time I thought maybe it's time to go."

'Officials Don't Listen'

In some ways things have improved for young people, but not fast enough to meet their heightened expectations. 

Today, they openly criticize the government and the system in a way that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, but they feel ignored.

"Officials don't listen to young people. They ignore their hopes, their views on life, society, religion, politics," said Ehsan, a 24-year-old student.  

"I was one of those who told my friends they must vote because that allowed us to demand things... but now I see we can't do anything." 

But abandoning friends, family and homeland is tough, so for the optimistic entrepreneurs there is a determination to struggle through. 

Sanctions have not been entirely negative, said Amirreza Mohammadi, another of Start-Up Week's organizers. 

By blocking foreign competition, sanctions "created jobs for young Iranians and created a desire to push forward our own projects," he said.

"Maybe one day I'll be forced to leave too," said Khodaie. "But this is somewhere I can have an impact and that moves me to stay."

Photo Credit: Ted Regencia

Iran Minister Says 'Impossible' to Block Information by Banning Apps

Iran's telecoms minister said Tuesday it was "impossible to block citizen's access to information", a day after the conservative-dominated judiciary banned the hugely popular Telegram messaging app.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi's comments on Twitter highlighted differences of opinion between the government of reformist President Hassan Rouhani and ultra-conservatives who control the judiciary and security services.

"Even if we ban the use of software, other software will be found and information will start to circulate freely again," Jahromi wrote. "Technology is not intrinsically guilty, corrupt, or deviant," he added. 

"It is human beings who misuse it to promote crime and corruption in the virtual world, just as they do in real life."

A Tehran judge on Monday ordered the blocking of Telegram, the judiciary's Mizan Online news agency said, following accusations that the app has allowed armed opposition groups to fuel unrest.

The move follows a presidential directive banning all government workers from using foreign messenger apps to communicate.

Built by Russian tech guru Pavel Durov, Telegram is the most popular social network in Iran with some 40 million users—roughly half the population.

During a wave of protests that hit dozens of Iranian cities early this year, authorities temporarily banned the app, saying it enabled foreign-based "counter-revolutionary" groups to stir tensions.

Since then, authorities have sought to develop Iranian social media networks and limit reliance on foreign-based platforms, which Tehran accuses of hosting sites hostile to the Islamic Republic.

The ban adds Telegram to the list of social networks blocked in the Islamic Republic but accessible via virtual private network (VPN) software which can circumvent internet blackouts—something the judiciary wants to prevent in the case of the messaging app.

Monday's announcement was followed by rumors Jahromi had resigned, but the semi-official ISNA news agency denied that.

"On the question of filtering (social networks), we said and repeated that this is not the only solution," it cited him as saying. "The competent authorities heard our arguments and made their decision."

Photo Credit: IRNA