The Islamic Republic was listed as the fourth worst state for censorship among the world’s 193 states.
Even worse than Iran, the group said, were Syria, North Korea and, in last place, Eritrea.
Big censors, but not as bad as Iran, were Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Belarus, the last being the best of the bad.
CPJ last issued its10 worst censors list in 2006. Iran did not even make the list that year.
CPJ said, “Iran has mixed high-technology techniques such as web blocking with brute force tactics such as mass imprisonment of journalists to control the flow of in formation and obfuscate details of its own nuclear program.”
It said, “Iran became vastly more repressive after the disputed 2009 election….Tehran—which once withheld [newspaper] subsidies and issued short prison sentences to keep critical journalists quiet—now closes news outlets, expels foreign media, imprisons dozens on lengthy terms and seizes property.”
It said one trait that all 10 major censors have in common “is some form of authoritarian rule. Their leaders are in power by dint of monarchy, family dynasty, coup d’etat, rigged election or some combination thereof…. Disputed legitimacy of leadership is at the heart of censorship and media crackdowns in many places.”