Great news: Iranian blogger Sina Motellebi is free
: Sina Motallebi, the Iranian blogger who was arrested because of what he wrote on his weblog and was awaiting trial under the mullahs’ thumb, has escaped Iran with his wife and young child and is safe in Europe.
And he’s blogging again (note the gap in his blog from April until December).
Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder), who did a great job bringing Motallebi’s case to the attention of the world, talked with him.
Congratulations Sina and congratulations Hoder. It’s a shame that these talented people had to leave Iran but I’m confident they’ll return and create a new Iran soon enough.
: Here’s my original post on Motallebi’s arrest. A lot came out of that post for me. It was through this news that I discovered Hossein Derakhshan and the amazing story of the Iranian weblog revolution. It was because of the wonderous things happening online in Iran — even Iran — that I started wishing for an explosion of weblogs in newly freed Iraq. It was because of those posts that Zeyad started blogging. It was because Zeyad started blogging that others in Iraq blogged, and that I sent him a camera, and that his reporting is being seen around the world. It was because of Sina Motallebi’s arrest that I, for one, learned a great deal about Iran and then Iraq and met and became friends with many amazing and brave webloggers in both countries. It was because of Sina Motallebi and Hossein Derakhshan and Zeyad and all the other Iranian and Iraqi bloggers that I saw the true power of this citizens’ media.
We are all connected.
: Here’s a link to an op-ed I wrote about Sina, with links to other posts about him. And here’s Hoder’s original post about the arrest.
