TEHRAN — Guardian Council spokesman Abassali Kadkhodaei has censured the United States’ blocking of some Iranian media outlets while seemingly championing free speech.
“Freedom of expression in the American regime means blocking other countries’ media,” Kadkhodaei tweeted on Monday, referring to the U.S. blocking and seizing of the .com domain of some Iranian news websites.
“In addition to assassinating individuals and economic terrorism (sanctions), they have now resorted to media terrorism as well and have made their records of terror activities heavier by seizing Iranian media outlets’ domains,” he added.
The U.S. Treasury Department has recently blocked and seized the .com domain of the Iran newspaper and other Iranian media outlets in its latest wave of anti-Iran measures.
Mahdi Shafiei, the Iran newspaper’s managing director, said on Saturday that legal efforts were underway to take back the domain.
Shafiei said in the meantime that the newspaper’s website can be accessed via “Irannewspaper.ir”.
The newspaper’s .com domain was seized by the Treasury Department’s Florida-based “OFAC Holding”.
According to Deutsche Welle, the .com domains of some other Iranian websites including the Iran Daily, Al Vefagh, Iran Varzeshi, and Iran Sepid have also been blocked and seized by the OFAC Holding.
In a statement on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly denounced the U.S. Treasury’s hostile measure, describing it as a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and freedom of expression.
“The [U.S.] regime’s act of silencing the alternative media movement has reduced America to the main violator of the law-based international order,” it added.
Back in January, the .com domain of Fars news agency went offline worldwide due to U.S. sanctions.
In a post on its Twitter account at the time, Fars said access to its .com domain had been blocked upon the U.S. Treasury’s order.
Internet users trying to access farsnews.com also found only a blank screen, along with a message stating “farsnews.com’s server IP address could not be found.”
The news agency said it had received an email from its server company, which “explicitly said that the blockage is due to an order by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and its inclusion in the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN).”
However, Fars can still be accessed through its .ir domain.
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