An Old Case: A Political Censorship of Book in Law of Iran

Volume 1, Issue 1
May 2025
Pages 163-183

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Law and Political sciences Faculty, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Master of communication Law, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
The book, despite having the protection of freedom of expression in the Iranian constitution, is facing a censorship in the regulations. According to Article 4 of the "Revised regulation on the Goals, Policies, and Rules of Book Publishing" approved by the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution in 2010, there are items under the heading "Politics and Society" that can be evaluated under political censorship.In this research, regardless of the fact that the council does not have the authority to restrict freedom of expression, the political censorship causes in the council's regulation have been adapted to the laws.The result indicates that the council's regulation does not contradict the laws in cases of insulting officials and illegal disclosure of classified documents. But the censorship causes under the title "advertisement and conflict with Constitution and revolution","inciting the society to revolt against the government and revolution", "promoting anti-revolutionary elements and secular and royal governments", "propaganda of dependence on domineering powers and opposition to the independence of Iran","propaganda against national interests and security" and rendering the government inefficient" and "disrupting and doubting the national unity and territorial integrity of the country",for the reasons of "the historical nature of the revolution phenomenon and the impossibility of criminalizing opposition to history, predicting the crime of propagandistic activity against the government in the law and the need for an uprising against Government by practical action, the impossibility of absolute opposition or agreement with all kinds of political regimes, which are concepts of public law and political science, the irrationality of introducing scientific ideas and terms as the red line of the book, the vagueness and generality of the words National security or interests and extracting different crimes from them", are contrary to the laws and deserve to be reformed.

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