Ma`rifat Hoghoughi

In the age of the information society, the media, as one of the main pillars of social, political, and cultural life, requires an ethical and legal framework grounded in religious and jurisprudential foundations. Since Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) is not limited solely to devotional matters but encompasses all dimensions of individual and social human life-including the media sphere-examining the jurisprudential rules governing the press and mass communication is among the systematic necessities of media regulation in an Islamic society. This research, employing a qualitative-library method and drawing upon jurisprudential texts, has extracted and analyzed the jurisprudential rules related to the media domain at both the individual and governmental levels. The findings of the research indicate that in the realm of individual jurisprudence (Fiqh al-Fard), issues such as the prohibition of violating people's honor, the prohibition of slander and defamation (iftirā' and tuhmah), the prohibition of espionage (tajassus) and backbiting (ghībah), the prohibition of mockery (istihzā'), and respect for intellectual property are among the ethical-jurisprudential standards of media practice. Meanwhile, at the level of governmental jurisprudence (Fiqh al-Ḥukūmah), issues such as the prohibition of publishing misleading/deviant books (kutub ḍāllah), the prohibition of spreading obscenity (ishā'at al-faḥshā'), the protection of public chastity, and oversight of violations of privacy define the legislative and supervisory duties of the state. By synthesizing jurisprudential and legal perspectives, this article presents a theoretical framework for formulating press laws appropriate to temporal-spatial conditions and based on Sharʿī foundations. It further demonstrates that media regulation in the Islamic system is not merely restrictive, but rather guarantees a balance between freedom of expression and the preservation of religious, ethical, and social values.