Yesterday, information was divulged on the Internet that Iran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced 8 young people to 11-21 years in prison for posting “anti-state” materials on the Facebook social network. Iranians were convicted of “anti-state propaganda addressed to the national security, as well as abusing Iranian leaders and religious values”. In Iran, there is a system filtering social networks, including, Twitter and Facebook, as well as anti-Islamic considered websites (cited by tert.am).
As to how our neighboring country’s political system is, it is their internal affair. Maybe the friendly country people like this system. I cite the news with one purpose, to show that there are two ways, the one that Iran and many other countries had chosen, and the one which European countries passed by. A mid-way is impossible in the 21st century. Under modern technologies, either you can prohibit free expression and openly declare about it, or not to obstacle it in any way. For the second case, first, the power, and generally, the society, should “withstand” all negative consequences.
What is state and what is anti-state, what does it mean to abuse religious values. Each one has its own answer to those questions. For instances, I think that criticizing the authorities with strongest words, and demanding to “leave” is not anti-state. I also think that the high clergymen with their cynical and “oligarchic” behavior abuse religious values more than the worst transvestite is. But this is my subjective feeling.
There are also posts found on the “Facebook” and websites that seem, if not anti-state for me, but dangerous for the state. They refer particularly to Armenia-Azerbaijan, Artsakh-Azerbaijan military resistance. In the last three days, hundreds of “experts” on subversive acts popped-up on the Internet, one more “opposition” than the other is. Those commenting think how deeper suspicions they express about explanations presented by Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army regarding Azerbaijanis penetrated to Karvachar, the braver and “upright” they are. In fact, these “experts” cause unnecessary panic among the public with their overly amateur thinking. Eventually, the military affair is not politics, which, as we know, any cook can deal with.
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Anyway, such comments cannot be a reason to prohibit or restrict free expression in any way. Because prohibition is the authorities’ temptation. And the goal of the authorities in any country is to remain in his chair.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
