• Associated Press, Thursday, December 7, 2006 11:01 AM

After Iran blocked access to YouTube and other U.S.-based sites on Tuesday, a press-rights group came out with a warning that Internet censorship in the Islamic state is on the rise. Web users who visited the popular online video site were greeted with the following message: "On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran laws, access to this website is not authorized." This is the same message that appears when users try to access pornographic Web sites blocked by the government.

The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, the same group that protests China's censorship of the Web, reported that YouTube had been blocked in Iran for at least five days. Access to The New York Times' Web page has been prohibited since Friday, while Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, has been inaccessible since Sunday. Iranian officials didn't comment, but an Associated Press reporter said the Times site was available again on Tuesday.

Iran's Shiite cleric government regularly blocks access to certain Web sites, though Western Web sites have generally been available, the AP says. YouTube was reportedly blocked after videos from the Iranian opposition groups showed up on the site. Reporters Without Borders responded by saying, "Censorship is now the rule rather than the exception" in Iran, and that censorship in the Muslim country was inching closer to that of China.

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