TEHRAN, July 20 (AFP) - One of the new conservative MPs who now control Iran`s parliament said Tuesday the assembly would soon rethink the Islamic republic`s total ban on satellite television dishes as well as examine Internet usage.
Fatemeh Rahbar, a member of the parliament`s cultural commission, acknowledged to the official news agency IRNA that the move was a concession to the fact that millions of Iranian own satellite television dishes anyway.
"The fact of the matter is that the Iranian society is using the Internet and satellite dishes. Therefore, the only solution now is organising their use," she said, adding the Majlis or parliament would soon study a bill on the issue.
"We are not against using the satellite dishes and the Internet. But there must be an extensive expert study on the issue to arrive at the best results," she added.
The use and possession of satellite dishes is banned in the Islamic republic, with those breaking the law punishable by fines and jail terms.
Iranian hardliners denounce foreign satellite broadcasts for trampling on Islamic values and say they are used increasingly by exiled opposition groups, especially those based in Los Angeles, California, to stir anti-government unrest.
Around a dozen opposition television stations beam Persian-language broadcasts into Iran. Most are run by sympathisers of the monarchy that was ousted in 1979.
But according to official estimates about three million households have access to satellite television, depite the regular announcement of large scale seizures by police and Islamic militiamen.
Satellite receivers are easily found in the bazaars of Tehran, and there is also a thriving black market trade in pirated cards that enable receivers to decode scrambled pay channels.
During the tenure of the previous parliament, controlled by reformists, deputies passed a bill that would have allowed limited access to satellite television.
The text commissioned the telecommunications ministry to develop "receivers that can receive a limited number of foreign channels" whose broadcasts do not contravene Iran`s national and Islamic values.
But the bill was ultimately rejected as unworkable by the Guardians Council, a conservative-controlled legislative watchdog.
Internet access is permitted in th Islamic republic, although service providers are obliged to block access to sites featuring pornographic or anti-regime content. The report did not say how the new parliament envisaged "organising" web access.