DUBAI -Iran's minister of communications said on Wednesday he had been misquoted after news outlets cited him as saying the authorities might disrupt internet services for security reasons.
The semi-official ISNA news agency had quoted communications minister Issa Zarepour as saying "restrictions to the internet may be decided and applied by the security apparatus, but overall we have not had any bandwidth reduction."
But shortly afterwards, the official IRNA news agency cited Zarepour as saying some news outlets had published a wrong quote from him on the sidelines of a government meeting.
"In recent days, there have been temporary restrictions in some places and at some hours, which have been resolved, and currently the communication network does not have any problems in terms of speed and quality," IRNA quoted him as saying, without mentioning any possibility of further disruption.
Iran has been swept by protests since Saturday, ignited by the death of a young woman while she was in the custody of the morality police.