Iran has blocked access to YouTube and a media rights group warned that Internet censorship in the Islamic state is on the rise. Internet users who tried to call up the YouTube site Tuesday were met with the message, "On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran laws, access to this Web site is not authorized" - which appears on numerous opposition and pornographic sites the government blocks.
Iran's Shiite cleric-run government regularly blocks opposition sites, including blogs, and the number of sites that bring up the "unauthorized" message has been increasing over the past year. Western news sites, however, are generally available.
Videos from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and other Iranian opposition groups have been posted on YouTube.com, along with videos posted by individual Iranians critical of the regime. The site also has Iranian pop music videos, which are frowned upon by the religious leadership.
In its statement Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders warned that "censorship is now the rule rather than the exception" in Iran. "The government is trying to create a digital border to stop culture and news coming from abroad - a vision of the Net which is worrying for the country's future," it said.
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