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Nokia accused of taking sides in Iran

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Opposition supporters in Iran have accused cell phone giant Nokia of helping the government eavesdrop on citizen cell phone calls as part of its crackdown during anti-government protests last month. Anchor Jeb Sharp gets the story from correspondent Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Tehran. Listen

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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World. It’s been more than a month since Iran’s presidential election provoked massive anti-government demonstrations. But opposition supporters aren’t just targeting the government. Some of them are now boycotting the cell phone giant Nokia. They accuse it of collaborating with Iran’s authorities. Specifically they say Nokia and the firm Siemens sold Iran electronic monitoring systems that the government used to eavesdrop of on dissidents’ cell phones. Tehran-based correspondent Saeed Kamali Dehghan wrote about the story in today’s Guardian newspaper. How wide spread is this boycott in Iran?

SAEED KAMALI DEHGHAN: Well I have talked to some wholesalers of the Nokia handsets in Tehran and they confirmed that they receive half a demand in comparison with before. So it seems that people are just not happy with having Nokia anymore after the revelation that the Nokia Siemens network has sold a monitoring system to the Iranian regime.

SHARP: What is Nokia saying?

DEHGHAN: Well Nokia they themselves refuse to comment on the specific issue. They said that they’re not going to comment about [INAUDIBLE] and the other hand I could manage to talk to a spokesman from the Nokia Siemens network. They were saying that monitoring system was a part of the network itself. But on the other hand you know the Iranian protestors think that the monitoring system was separate from the network.

SHARP: So let me just see if I have that clear. The protestors feel as if Nokia could have sold a phone system that didn’t have this capability to monitor but Nokia itself says no it’s just part of the package. This is standard.

DEHGHAN: Yes that is correct.

SHARP: We’ve been talking about Nokia but I understand the boycott has spread to other targets. What other companies are being singled out?

DEHGHAN: Well there are some governmental companies, the companies who have given advertisement to the state-run T.V. Well people don’t feel happy anymore saying the companies [INAUDIBLE] on T.V. So somehow I can say there’s a boycott inside Iran to the companies who are continuing to give [INAUDIBLE] advertisements to the state on T.V. So in these terms the T.V. in Iran is confronting an economy crisis because they don’t have any income in terms of advertisements. And the Iranian people have decided to boycott SMS and not using it anymore.

SHARP: So SMS being texting. People are not texting.

DEHGHAN: Yeah exactly. People are not texting anymore because they think that would affect the government their communication service with a decrease in the income they receive from texting. But the government needs money from SMS texting and people are not using it anymore.

SHARP: Do you think economic boycotts are now the most viable strategy for opponents of Iran’s regime?

DEHGHAM: Well it can be effective but the Iranian economy is mostly based on the oil price and the Iranian protestors inside Iran cannot do many, many important or effective things about the oil price. But at least it will show to the government how people are angry. There are lots of people inside Iran who are not happy with the situation and are continuing their protest in underground. You know they cannot go to the streets so they have shifted the protests from the streets to the underground and to the other new ways.

SHARP: Thanks very much. Tehran-based correspondent Saeed Kamali Dehghan writes for the British newspaper The Guardian. He joined us from London. Thanks again.

DEHGHAN: Thanks.

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