Culture minister asks law enforcement help in confronting music
Published: Monday, June 30, 2008
23:58GMT—7:58PM/EST
IRAN – SOCIETY – MUSIC – CENSORSHIP
Washington, 29 June (IranVNC)—The minister of Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi, said on Sunday that the country’s law enforcement and security forces should help combat what he has called “circulation of unhealthy music”.
“The country’s cultural apparatus is unable to confront unhealthy foreign music on its own, so law enforcement and security offices must also join the operation,” Saffar-Harandi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.
Saffar-Harandi further accused some of Iran’s music groups of using music as “a pretext to achieve their unhealthy objectives.”
The recording and distribution of tapes and CDs, as well as organizing concerts, are possible only with permission from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. But the ministry, which is especially strict with rap and rock music, has faced difficulties in controlling the distribution of music with the advent of computer recording and “underground” recording studios in private houses.
According to some reports, there are over 3,000 “underground” music groups in Iran, who are able to record and distribute their work, many of which have a
critical edge to them.
Sources: IRNA
© IranVNC 2008. All rights reserved.
(Original article written in Persian.)