Online Newspapers, Live TV Channels, Radios

Censorship is imposed on the media of Iran. The media outlets in the country are owned by the public and private ownership. But all the media outlets are subject to the censorship. Under the censorship, the media activities are monitored. Media in Iran refers to print, electronic and broadcast media outlets. At present the number of print media is around over 170, television channels are few, magazines are over 80. But the number of blog sites is remarkable. There are around 2 million blog sites available in Iran.

A special court is engaged to monitor the media activities. The court is also authorized to cancel the license of any media outlet if there is any violation of the censorship. The censor mostly imposed on religious issues. Iran is an Islamic state and hence, the violation of religious matters is strictly prohibited. The media is not allowed to criticize the Islamic matters and doctrine and there are also ban on criticizing the present and former leaders of the state.

The number of newspapers in Iran is around 90. Most of them are dailies. Newspapers in the country is published in several languages including Persian and English. Most of the newspapers are circulated in Tehran. The newspaper contents contain socio-cultural issues. Besides, national and international matters are also widely published in the newspapers. But the newspapers being subject to censorship, freedom is not ensured there. Majority of the Iranian magazines are published in the Persian language which has a wide audience.

The first television was introduced in 1958 in Iran and gradually several other television stations were also set in the country. The television channels broadcast different types of programs including quiz competitions, debate competitions, dubbed programs etc. But the broadcast of satellite channels is banned in the country from 1994. A notable percentage of the population have access to satellite channels despite the ban. People mostly get news and information from the state-run television channel while the private channels try to make a profit by commercial activities. But there are some foreign broadcasts are also available in the state.

Blogging is a great issue in Iran and there a wide number of bloggers are available across the country. They compose blogs on different socio-economic issues. Blogging began as the consequence of the crackdown on web media in Iran. Many of the web media users turned into bloggers and started expressing their opinions about diversified issues. The blogs are important in different contexts. They provide the platform to express the opinions in anonymous forms.