The Scope and Area of the Legislative Competence of the Assembly in the field of Publications and the Press

Explaining the legislative competence of the Assembly in the field of freedom of publications and the press needs to determination of the scope and areas of such authority. For this purpose, it was needed to determine the constraints of this freedom and their meanings. In addition to the constraints stipulated in Principle 24, “prohibition of causing harm to others” set forth in Principle 40 is also introduced as a restriction of the freedom of publications in this research. In this regard, the constraint of “disturbance in foundations of Islam” in Principle 24 means to undermine and irresolute the beliefs of people regarding the essentialities of Islam and therefore, it is different from the Islamic criteria and Islamic ordinances. The constraint of “disturbance in public rights” is also the violation of rights belonging to the whole of the people and society. Hence, the Assembly can just detail these constraints in the scope of such meanings.
Regarding the clarification of the areas of legislative competence of the Assembly, it is also determined that in spheres in which the order of society demands to legislate, the Assembly can legislate due to the details of the negotiations of Principle 24 and generality of the Principle 71; In spheres such as: recognizing the new media types, determination of penalties for cases violating this Principle, determining the mechanism of monitoring these instruments and the other relevant fields. Therefore, the legislative competence of the Assembly isn’t restricted to the details of these freedom constraints