FNA Still Fighting US terrorism to Take Back Original Domain

The registrar company that was rendering service to the Fars News Agency blocked FNA’s access to its .com domain on Friday and explained in an e-mail that the established regulations of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and its list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) prohibit services to Fars News Agency.

The move came as neither the Fars News Agency (FNA) nor any of its directors and executives have ever been blacklisted in the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list which is enforced by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), implying that the US unilateral sanctions that are illegal per se as they fall outside the UN Security Council and UN Charter have been used as an instrument to contain the voice of the Iranian news agency in a flagrant violation of human rights and freedom of expression.

Further examinations of the lawyers also show that none of people responsible in the privately-owned Cultural Institute of Fars News Agency, which holds the license for running the FNA, have been added to the SDN list.

Meanwhile, the American domain registrar company who used to offer the .com domain of the FNA is now refusing to give the news agency the needed user access to change its service provider.

Officials at Iranian Ministry of Telecommunications and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace have promised to help the news agency overcome the problem with technical and legal advice but the registrar company continues to refuse to cooperate and insists on keeping FNA’s user access locked forcing FNA’s team of lawyers to level up legal measures.

Yet, Fars News Agency is up and available on its .ir domain.

Fars, a leading news agency in Iran, started work as the first non-state news agency in 2003 and under the registry name of Fars Press and Culture Institute.