Iran

I was asked to contribute some material for Al Jazeera English’s The Listening Post to talk about Iranian bloggers. Apparently this aired today. Sorry that my head is a little cut off — I haven’t shot much video on my MacBook.

I’m a little behind, but I just read Maziar Bahari’s account of his 118 days in an Iranian prison in Newsweek. It’s frightening to say the least, and confirms similar accounts I’ve heard by others who have had the pleasure of Evin Prison’s hospitality. Robert Mackey in The Lede blog writes: Mr. Bahari’s account of his 118 days in captivity offers a fascinating insight into the government’s attempts to understand and stifle the dissent that followed the election. It is…

The Associated Press, November 14 2009: TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has formed a special unit to monitor Web sites and fight Internet crimes, in a clear attack on an opposition that relies almost exclusively on online means to broadcast its message, local newspapers reported Saturday. Police Col. Mehrdad Omidi, who heads the Internet crime unit, said the committee will fight “insults and the spreading of lies,” terms widely used by the judiciary to describe opposition activities. “Given the spread of…

So I just got off a Skype call with Farhad Ardalan to learn more about the early days of the Iranian Internet back in 1989. It wasn’t until 1992 that Iran was connected via EARN to the Internet. Fun fact: According to Ardalan, the man who authorized Iran’s first Internet connection was Mohammad-Javad Larijani (pictured). At the time, Larijani was the director of the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in Tehran. He is currently an adviser to…

Yesterday, on MetaFilter, readers figured out that Hoder.com was about to expire at the end of this month and they wanted to make sure that it stayed in Hossein Derakhshan’s name. Some had suggested that they wouldn’t allow the domain to be renewed until he did it himself — and he obviously can’t as he’s in prison. However, later in the day, the domain’s whois records showed that someone had renewed it for a year, but it was unclear how…

I had the honor of being interviewed (again!) by Jesse Brown on his TVO show, “Search Engine“, to provide an update on Hossein Derakhshan. As I mentioned yesterday, and as Jesse blogged, we’ve gotten a little more information since we recorded this podcast last week. Audio is here. Also, thanks for the link love from Bobby, David, Ethan, Farid and Xeni.

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Hossein “Hoder” Derakhshan. I’ve been covering this issue on my blog and also for three media outlets: PRI’s The World, in a piece that aired on Wednesday, TVO’s Search Engine (in an episode airing tomorrow), and for PBS’ MediaShift in a piece that will be airing later this week. The CBC also came out with a piece late Thursday night that I’ve just now seen. I have also been in regular…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my piece on the one year anniversary of the arrest of Iran’s “blogfather,” Hossein Derakhshan, is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern…

Just 10 days before the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Hossein Derakhshan, his father, Hassan Derakhshan, has written a letter to Ayatollah Larijani, the head of the Department of the Judiciary. The letter was published on the website of Salaam, a reformist newspaper today, October 21, 2009 (29th of Mehr, 1388). The letter was translated from the original Persian by an Iranian living in California who wished to remain anonymous and edited for clarity by yours truly. To the…

Remember how in June, The Daily Show aired an awesome series of reports from Iran? Well, now Voice of America has aired, in both English and Persian, a behind-the-scenes look at their trip. English: Daily Show Goes to Iran from sahar sarshar on Vimeo. Persian (voiceover): Daily Show Travels to Iran – (Farsi Translated version) from sahar sarshar on Vimeo.