'Iran wants to punish not only journalists but anyone accessing news on the internet'

The Iran regime wants to humiliate journalists and bloggers as well as ordinary internet users who are sending emails or accessing news sites, Reporters Without Borders claims.

RWB reports that prosecutors have again put the media at the centre of its case during the fifth hearing before a Tehran revolutionary court in the mass trial of opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, this time going so far as to accuse Facebook and YouTube of waging a psychological war against Iran.
“This travesty of justice must be brought to an end,” RWB said. “The Iranian judicial authorities want to humiliate journalists and bloggers by staging forced confessions and requests for forgiveness. Journalists and ordinary Internet users are being tried just for sending emails and looking at news websites. The regime wants to punish not only professional journalists but also anyone accessing news and information.”
RWB said the prosecutor told the court: “There are 25 million people in Iran who use the Internet. The United States supported websites such as Facebook and YouTube with the aim of influencing the rioters and undermining the government’s position both nationally and internationally. Sites such as Facebook and YouTube were devised by the United States in order to wage a psychological war against Iran.”