January 27, 2006
Iranian authorities are blocking the British Broadcasting Corporation's Persian language internet site. The BBC, which broadcasts news around the world via television, radio, and websites in various languages, says that the level of traffic to its site from within Iran has dropped sharply over the last days. No official explanation has been given. The BBC has expressed concern at the action, saying it deprived many Iranians of a trusted source of news. The Corporation said it would be approaching the Iranian government at an official level about re-instating access. BBC Persian.com is the most popular of the BBC's non-English language websites, receiving about 30 million page impressions a month - about half of which are from inside Iran. BBC World Service radio broadcasts in English and Persian are being received by audiences in Iran as normal, as are the international online news services in English.
