Senate Foreign Relations Committee calls for more Web censorship circumvention efforts in Iran

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a symbolic message to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) on April 27, urging its members to support "Internet censorship circumvention measures" in Iran.

Lawmakers on the committee unanimously approved the "sense of the Congress" amendment, pitched by Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware), as part of this year's State Department budget. The effort arrives as lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned by Iran's practice of detaining dissident bloggers and others who use to Web to further the state's burgeoning opposition movement. The measure that won committee approval on Tuesday has no force of law, but it nonetheless petitions the BBG to "expand international broadcasting in Iran," while promoting "means which provide for the dissemination of accurate and independent information... through radio, television, Internet, mobile devices and other forms of connective technology."