Journalism

Earlier this month, Egyptian blogger Abdel Rahman Faras was arrested in Cairo by Egyptian authorities. I checked in with Antony Loewenstein, author of The Blogging Revolution to check in to see what he could tell me about this. Our 12 minute conversation is here.

AP, April 25, 2009: TEHRAN, Iran – The American journalist convicted of spying in Iran has gone on a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, her father said Saturday. Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was convicted of spying for the United States and sentenced to eight years in prison after a swift, closed door trial earlier this month. Saberi was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials, but earlier this month, an Iranian…

Agence France Presse (April 19 2009): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Sunday for fair treatment of US reporter Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail as a US spy, the state news agency IRNA reported. In a rare intervention in judicial proceedings, Ahmadinejad said the Tehran prosecutor should examine the case against both Saberi and Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been behind bars since November, IRNA said. “At the president’s insistence, you must do…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Urban Pacman in Lyon is airing today. (Scope my photo as Pacman here.) 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 –…

I first encountered Evgeny Morozov about a year and a half ago when researching a story for Foreign Policy‘s back page, Net Effect. Over the last several months (and increasingly in the last few weeks), I’ve seen his name pop up all over the Internet. He’s one of the smartest researchers and thinkers about the Internet’s effects on the world at large that I know of. I’m thrilled that he’s just been selected to run Foreign Policy‘s new Net Effect…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the death of Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 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 – WGBH –…

Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders said today it was deeply shocked at the death in a Tehran prison of blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi and called for the immediate opening of an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy. His lawyer, Mohamed Ali Dadkhah, was informed of the blogger’s death by a doctor, Hesem Firozi, who is himself imprisoned. The young blogger had been depressed and no longer able to cope with prison conditions. The doctor said, “The death of this…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the recent LIFT conference that I attended in Geneva is airing tomorrow on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. That’s right, my radio career has gone international! It will be available on your local CBC station at the following times: Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. (12:00 NT) Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. (4:30 NT) If you find yourself outside the reach of the CBC’s antennae, feel free to listen to it online, here, or…

Human Rights Watch, February 10 2009: Authorities arrested Omid Memarian, Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, and Javad Gholamtamimi in September and October 2004, and detained them without charge. The four said that they were subjected in detention to physical and psychological abuse, as well as prolonged periods of solitary confinement in a secret detention center without access to counsel or family. Three of the men subsequently described the abuse at a meeting with Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the…

As a little preview to my appearance this week on CBC’s Spark, the team up in Toronto has posted a 35-minute interview that I did with Vint Cerf a couple weeks ago while at the LIFT conference in Geneva. The full podcast should be available later this week. Also, if you’re in Canada, let me know if you hear me on the radio!