Iran blocks access to dissident Web sites, porn

? Iran is blocking access to Web sites containing pornographic material and opposition-driven dissent against the country’s Islamic establishment, an official said Tuesday.

More than 140 Web sites promoting dissent, dancing and sex have been blocked since the crackdown began last month, said Farhad Sepahram, an official at the Telecommunications Ministry.

Religious hard-liners are increasingly concerned about Iranians’ access to information from the outside world, a sign of worry such communications are playing a role in stirring pro-reform sentiment, such as the recent anti-government protests by young people.

Sepahram said most of the blocked Web sites belonged to opposition groups. Among them is one run by Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and one by Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first elected president after 1979, who now opposes the cleric-dominated establishment.

Also blocked are the Voice of America’s Farsi-language service and radiofarda.com, a U.S.-financed, Farsi audio program.

Sepahram said his ministry also was blocking some pornographic sites run by Iranians from outside the country, but he conceded it was impossible to close access to all sex-related sites.

Hanif Mazrouei, a writer for a reformist Web site and the son of a leading reformist legislator, predicted the crackdown will fail.

“In the 1980s, the government banned videos” he said. “Blocking Web sites is more difficult to do. They can’t deny a nation impatient for change from information they like to know.”