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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's public service broadcaster the BBC accused Tehran on Tuesday of blocking its Farsi-language Web site, which it describes as one of the most influential sources of news in Iran.

The BBC says its Farsi site, BBCpersian.com, normally receives 30 million page views a month, making it the British broadcaster's most popular foreign-language site.

An Iranian culture ministry official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in Tehran the Web Site had been "filtered since two days ago" but did not give a reason behind the move.

The site is read by about a third of the 7 million internet users in Iran, the broadcaster said in a statement. But it said access had dropped dramatically over the past three days since reports emerged that the Iranian government was blocking it.

"We are very concerned at this action and regret that it deprives a great number of ordinary Iranians of a trusted source of impartial and editorially independent news and information," BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman said in the statement.

"The appetite among Iranians to know more about what's going on -- both in Iran and abroad -- has never been greater," he said.



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