BBC Monitoring

Excerpt from report by Iranian newspaper Mardom-Salari website on 18 October

The vice-president of the Majlis cultural committee, in referring to the meeting of the committee on Tuesday, which was attended by the minister of culture and a representative from a pilgrimage organization, said: "Some MPs asked the minister for an explanation on filtering [web] sites, and he answered that they had no intention to close the sites."

Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Mohammad Reza Mir Tajjedini, in an interview with ISNA, said: "The minister said that the Baztab site had not been registered, and we asked them to register their site. When they failed to do so, we acted according to the law."

He also noted that, according to an explanation by the minister of culture, the issue was solved by administrators of the Baztab site, who have since obtained permission for the Tabnak website.

In referring to the performance of the committee in charge of assessing websites, he said: "MPs suggested that one Majlis deputy should also join the committee, and ! the suggestion was accepted by the minister." [Passage omitted]

[Baztab (meaning Reflection) news website was closed on the orders of Tehran Public Prosecutor Saeed Mortazevi on 19 September. The format and layout of Tabnak (meaning Shining) is very similar in appearance to Baztab. Tabnak can be accessed at http://www.tabnak.ir.]

Source: Mardom-Salari website, Tehran, in Persian 18 Oct 07