Exclusive Interview with Hojjat al-Islam Mohammad Qotbi by Contemporary Jurisprudence
Instead of Stating Media Rulings, We Should Focus on Explaining Media Jurisprudential Rules to the Public
Principle of media jurisprudence/27
The knowledge of jurisprudential rules, compared to related disciplines such as jurisprudence (fiqh) and principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), has a shorter history, making it a challenging area to address. This difficulty is compounded when dealing with emerging fields like media jurisprudence. To explore the rules of media jurisprudence, we turned to Hojjat al-Islam Mohammad Qotbi. Over decades of diverse activities, he has consistently prioritized media as one of his key concerns. As the head of the Eshraq Creativity and Innovation Center, he has emphasized the media component in nearly all his roles, from deputy governor to head of the Isfahan Propagation Office and director of the Eshraq Center. Years of management and research have established him as a media theorist. Although his focus has been less on jurisprudential knowledge, when discussing media jurisprudential rules, he proposed rules—whether correct or not—that are rarely addressed in jurisprudential circles. As the head of the Art and Creative Industries Working Group at the Islamic Research Center of the Parliament, he highlighted approximately 20 specific or widely applicable rules in media jurisprudence during this exclusive interview, providing examples for each.