According to Agence France-Presse on July 2:
Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet, reports said on Wednesday.
The rationale?
To
"toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," the ISNA news agency said.
According to Iranian law, apostasy is already punishable by death, but the draft bill includes "establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy", which is a new addition to crimes punishable by death.
The International human rights organizations are trying hard to stop this bill from passing. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called this proposal "horrifying", adding that
Iranian Internet users and bloggers already have to cope with very aggressive filtering policies. The passage of such a law, based on ill-defined concepts and giving judges a lot of room for interpretation, would have disastrous consequences for online freedom. We urge the parliament’s members to oppose this bill and instead to starting working on a moratorium on the death penalty.
and
Death sentences were already passed last year on two journalists - Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed “Hiva” Botimar - after judicial proceedings marked by many irregularities. They have been held for more than a year without any certainty as to what will happen to them, and we urge the authorities to free them at once.
I know this story is a bit old; but I couldn't find any diary on it here. The Iranian Parliament has already voted for this law on the first reading (for non-emergency bills, the Iranian MPs vote in 2 readings).
Contrary to the popular perception, Iranian Bloggers are very active. Farsi is the 10th most popular blogging language in the world.
These are our fellow bloggers trying to bring change to Iran and make the world a better place. I think we should help them. I paid some money to RSF since they seem to be at the forefront of these efforts. I encourage and ask all of you to try to help our fellow bloggers, albeit in another language. Maybe by helping Iranian citizens and citizen journalist we can avert another war, this time with Iran.
I am linking to this cartoon, by Nikahang Kowsar, an Iranian political cartoonist, who himself was arrested for a political cartoon. Translation for the Farsi bit:"Bill of Mental Security". I kid you not. This is what the Mullahs are calling the piece of sh*t legislation.