Iranian Censors Clamp Down on Bloggers

[ECH1969]

Sayeed Habibi considers himself a marked man. The reason: his Internet blog that challenges some of the policies of Iran's theocracy.

Iranian authorities are stepping up arrests and pressure on popular bloggers as part of a wider Internet clampdown launched after hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president last year, ending years of freewheeling Web access that once made Iran among the most vibrant online locales in the Middle East.

The Internet censors are busy. Their targets include sexual content, international politics, local grumbling, chat rooms and anything else that makes the Islamic leadership uneasy. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a prominent human rights lawyer, estimates at least 50 bloggers have been detained since last year.

The Islamic establishment is able to filter the Web through its oversight of all Iran's Internet service providers, as well as media, cinema, literature and other arts. The government also uses the Internet to promote is own messages. State-run television on Sunday announced the launch of Ahmadinejad's own blog http://www.ahmadinejad.ir where he writes about his childhood, the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2309450&page=2

[Tom Joad]

1. So is it time to rain down US bombs on Iran, so we can free the Iranian

blogosphere?
The down side would be we would probably kill more than we free.

[w4rma]

2. This is what the Republican leadership would like here. (nt)