Iran Provides No Freedom of Speech on the Internet -- Argumentative Ess

IntroductionCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the step down exercise t hereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the passel peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.The for the first time amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America can often be taken for granted. In many third-world countries, the idea of freedom of speech is in the back of peoples minds, but almost never brought to the forefront of issues facing the country and government. In recent years, this has become especially evident in the Middle East. In the United States, we are shown a display of the harsh authoritative rule of governments over their people in the Middle East, reminding us of how lucky we are to film freedom of speech and media to express our views, no matter how unpopular they are.When the Constitution was first drafted, the conception of anything remotely cl ose to the Internet was in no peerlesss mind. Freedom of speech, as it were, pertained to the media (i.e., newspapers, magazines, etc). Only recently with the widespread expansion of the Internet, has the value of freedom of speech really been seen. People from any walk of smell can post their opinions in this medium, where it can be seen by anyone else in the world. In the United States, there is not much of an ideological shift here because basically anything that could be said before the Internet can be said with the Internet. Of course there are some exceptions when it comes to war-time, but for the most air division we see freedom of speech being taken to its full advantage.In the Middle East, and specifically in Iran, there has never been anything like th... ... it the most. However, with new Persian web sites popping up almost everyday in Iran as well as in the United States, it is impossible to stop.ReferencesBabak Rahimi, Cyberdissent The Internet in radical Ira n, 2003, Middle Eastern Review of International Affairs, Volume 7, No. 3, September 2003, http//meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2003/issue3/jv7n3a7.html. Haleh Nazeri, Imagined Cyber Communities, Iranians and the Internet, 1996, New York University, December 1996, http//w3fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/nazeri.htm. Lydia Heller, Iran Anonymity of the Internet Fosters Freedom of Expression, 2003, Deutsche Welle, July 15 2003, http//www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php?wc_c=478&wc_id=14.Reporters Without Borders, Conservatives muzzle the Internet during elections, February 24 2004, http//www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9373.