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Iran jails blogger for 14 years


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Being affriad of terrorist actions, In Iraq most of bloggers inside Iraq are very reluctant to declare their names..

Below is a different suffering of such bloggers in Iran..

 

 

Iran jails blogger for 14 years

 

Millions of Iranians view the internet as a place to express themselves

An Iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries.

Arash Sigarchi was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists.

 

Mr Sigarchi, who also edits a newspaper in northern Iran, was sentenced by a revolutionary court in the Gilan area.

 

His sentence, criticised by human rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, comes a day after an online "day of action" to secure his release.

 

Iranian authorities have recently clamped down on the growing popularity of weblogs, restricting access to major blogging sites from within Iran.

 

A second Iranian blogger, Motjaba Saminejad, who also used his website to report on bloggers' arrests, is still being held.

 

'Illegal and incompetent'

 

A spokesman for Reporters Without Borders, which tracks press freedom across the globe, described Mr Sigarchi's sentence as "harsh" and called on Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to work to secure his immediate release.

 

"The authorities are trying to make an example of him," the organisation said in a statement.

 

The eyes of 8m bloggers are going to be more focused on Iran since Sigarchi's sentence, not less

 

Curt Hopkins,

Committee to Protect Bloggers

"By handing down this harsh sentence against a weblogger, their aim is to dissuade journalists and internet-users from expressing themselves online or contacting foreign media."

 

In the days before his arrest Mr Sigarchi gave interviews to the BBC Persian Service and the US-funded Radio Farda.

 

Iranian authorities have arrested about 20 online journalists during the current crackdown.

 

They accused Mr Sigarchi of a string of crimes against Iranian state, including espionage, insulting the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, and current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 

Mr Sigarchi's lawyer labelled the revolutionary court "illegal and incompetent" and called for a retrial in a public court.

 

Web campaign

 

Mr Sigarchi was sentenced one day after an online campaign highlighted his case in a day of action in defence of bloggers around the world.

 

 

Around 8m people write blogs on websites based around the world

The Committee to Protect Bloggers designated 22 February 2005 as Free Mojtaba and Arash Day.

 

Around 10,000 people visited the campaign's website during the day. About 12% of users were based in Iran, the campaign's director told the BBC News website.

 

Curt Hopkins said Mr Sigarchi's sentence would not dent the resolve of bloggers joining the campaign to help highlight the case.

 

"The eyes of 8 million bloggers are going to be more focused on Iran since Sigarchi's sentence, not less.

 

"The mullahs won't be able to make a move without it be spread across the blogosphere."

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

This board has grown in the past year. I have posted very little lately.

I spen a lot of internet time visiting many many forums and blogger boards.

Your post on the Iranian blogging crackdown is very interesting

 

I did a fast check on this board as of 3/19/05

 

Board Statistics

Our members have made a total of 3334 posts

 

We have 536 registered members

The newest member is Uruk

Most users ever online was 41 on Feb 24 2005, 06:34 PM

 

And to think I am only the 50th board member.

There must have been an explosion of interest in this message board in the past few months with the membership exceeding 200.

I see a lot of arabic language which is good. Non English being posted is a sign of healthy growth.

 

But.

 

 

Certain outside,western in origin websites get banned in China. Banned in that country are bloggers freedom of expression also .

 

The mullah's of Iran must be getting IT help or else they wouldn't be clamping down on their own citizens freedom of expression.

 

I wonder how many of the newest members are actually certain types of Iranians trolling :angry:

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Guest Guest

Got the following feeback from an Iranian friend

 

Iran has the highest relative number of bloggers in the world, probably because it is a way to vent against the crooks who run the country. Changes are afoot in Iran and I'm doing my best to push it along.

These sites give you a broad view on worldwide blogging matters:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12584

http://www.committeetoprotectbloggers.blogspot.com/

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
Got the following feeback from an Iranian friend

 

Iran has the highest relative number of bloggers in the world, probably because it is a way to vent against the crooks who run the country. Changes are afoot in Iran and I'm doing my best to push it along.

These sites give you a broad view on worldwide blogging matters:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=12584

http://www.committeetoprotectbloggers.blogspot.com/

How is your friend these days with the latest news ?

 

Hardline mayor scores landslide Iran election win

 

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Ultra-conservative Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to a landslide win in presidential elections on Saturday, spelling a possible end to Iran's fragile social reforms and tentative rapprochement with the West.

Ahmadinejad, 48, received the backing of the religious poor to defeat moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was supported by pro-reform parties and wealthy Iranians fearful of a hardline monopoly on power in the Islamic state.

 

"The figures show that Ahmadinejad is the winner," Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani told reporters.

 

He will be Iran's first non-cleric president for 24 years when he takes office in August.

 

An official at the Guardian Council, which must approve the election results, said that out of 24.8 million votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won 61.7 percent of ballots cast, defying pre-poll predictions of a tight race.

 

The official said turnout was 26 million, or 56 percent, down on the 63 percent of Iran's 46.7 million eligible voters who cast ballots in an inconclusive first round on June 17.

 

"It's over, we accept that we've lost," said a close aide to Rafsanjani, 70, who was president from 1989 to 1997.Washington repeated earlier accusations that the vote was unfair due to the prior disqualification of more than 1,000 hopeful candidates.

 

"We remain skeptical that the Iranian regime is interested in addressing either the legitimate desires of its own people or the concerns of the broader international community," said a State Department spokeswoman. She described Iran as "out of step" with the rest of the Middle East region.

 

Friday's vote exposed deep class divisions in the nation of 67 million people.

 

A former member of the special forces of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards, Ahmadinejad's humble lifestyle and pledges to tackle corruption and redistribute the country's oil wealth appealed to the urban and rural religious poor.

 

....

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/n...ran_election_dc

 

 

Lots more at the link.

 

So is this new leader in Iran a guy that Iraq will see as a threat ?

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also from the above article

 

His victory was the latest by a new breed of hardline politicians, many of them former Revolutionary Guardsmen, who won local council and parliamentary elections in 2003 and 2004 amid widespread disillusionment with the slow pace of reform.

 

Pro-reform political parties, students, clerics and academics had backed Rafsanjani, accusing Ahmadinejad of representing an authoritarian trend in Iranian politics.

 

"I vote for Ahmadinejad because he wants to cut the hands of those who are stealing the national wealth and he wants to fight poverty," said Rahmatollah Izadpanah, 41.

 

"I don't know why Ahmadinejad's message of social justice frightened people. What's wrong with justice?" said Hossein, 18.

 

In well off north Tehran, Rafsanjani voters said they feared Ahmadinejad would reverse modest reforms made under Khatami that allow women to dress in brighter, skimpier clothes and couples to fraternise in public without fear of arrest.

 

"I didn't vote for Ahmadinejad because I don't like the extreme behavior of his supporters," said film student Mohammad, 26.

 

We will know which direction Iran takes if Iranian bloggers continue to dissapear from the net and get thrown in jail soon.

 

 

 

Interesting story from this Iranian blogger with pictures of empty voting stations in Iran.

http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=1260

 

Will this new leader deliver on his promise " To give wealth to the poor and throw in jail the corrupt individuals of society"

 

Well,

some may go to jail but

the poor will always be among us.

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