To the barricades, fellow bloggers!
: No, I’m not talking about Rathergate (more on that later) or anything American.
The real blogging revolution is happening in Iran — and the powers that be are fighting back in frightening ways.
Hoder reports that the father of blogger Sina Motellebi has just been arrested.
It was when Sina himself was arrested in April, 2003, because of what he wrote on his blog that I first discovered Hoder and the incredible Iranian weblog culture. Thanks in some measure to the attention brought to his case by bloggers and then Big Media, Sina was released from prison and he fled Iran for Europe, where he has continued to write about what is happening in his homeland. And now, to pressure him to shut up, the mullahs have arrested his father. Iranian blogger Davood calls this what it is: hostage taking.
Tyrants play dirty.
Hoder sums up other arrests of people related to blogs and online. And he emphasizes:
Hardline consrvatives are very concerned when it comes to foreign press. So please help us spread the word in the blogosphere — by linking to the post or to other related resources — and give the news maximum exposure.
Please spread the word. Tells the mullahs that the whole world wide web is watching.
