April 24, 2003
Sina in prision - Day 4
Nothing new about Sina. After a few days of shock, many bloggers have started to post again. Although many of them were very active supporting him with wrting about him and putting up the banner that calls for his release, some well-known bloggers who use their real names are a bit frightened. Some of them have only put up the banner without anything about him and a few of them have not mentioned a sinlge word about him, fearing of risking their jobs in mainstream media.
Important development is a letter to the president which is written on behalf of "a number of bloggers and internet users". The letter is published in reformist-run websites such as Rouydad or Emrooz and i think they are going to use it as a political means to show the negative outcomes of such arrestes on the young generations.
Posted by hoder at April 24, 2003 3:10 PM
I totally agree with Ali.the hardliners are willing to sacrifice everything that takes to stay on power. They wont give up easily.
every single thng that they do seems to be already planned by someone very smart. thats why sometimes i wonder if foreigners are actually running them...
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It shows how confused the conservatives are. From their point of view they are trying to crack down every opposition, but whatever they do, something else pops up from somewhere else (this time weblogs). This is like nightmare for them. I'm sure by detaining Sina they are not only trying to frighten other bloggers, but they themselves also want to understand this new phenomenon better.
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This could be another new start of a severe crack down on journalist subsequently the human right in Iran; this time focus on young and independent generation of activist rather than close supporters of president Khatami (so called reformist in the body of the regime)! So we need to identify and use all new, as well as, standard form of antagonism against these new horrifying assaults on freedom! Obviously, Signing a Petition is not the only way to support basic human rights in Iran.
Personaly, I don’t know any proper alternative way myself, but what about you?
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Could you provide an English translation of the letter to the president? I run a multilingual community blog, and am following the case closely, but do not read Farsi. (I am hoping for some bilingual collaborators.) I think it is important to give a clear picture of what you and your colleagues are doing.
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