The Status of the National Information Network in Iran's Cultural Policy Sphere

Dou to the potential role of National Information Network (NIN) on cultural policy of national cyberspace, the status of this project in Iran’s cultural policy upstream documents has been studied in this paper. The study has focused on the Cultural needs arising from the polcies that points out the necessity of Design and Implementation of NIN and its potential role to achieve cultural goals and policies especially in the field of Information Communication Technology (ICT). The importance of this study is to display the project's supporting documents and policies. The policies that has been studied in the research among sixteen upstream documents can be summarized in six parts: policies related to utilizing opportunities of cyberspace and protection from its threats. Policies in support of Iranian software and hardware capacities. Policies associated with networked society development and creating fair and equal chances for everyone to access network-based services. Policies in relation with leadership and strategic management of cyberspace at the national and international levels. And finally policies on establishment of a comprehensive system of information and communication in the country. The whole of these policies point out the importance of establishing the national information network on the one hand; and on the other hand indicate its main role to implement Iran’s cultural policy in cyberspace by providing required infrastructure.