Reporters arrested, news sites shut down in Iran
Published: June 14, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
International press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders is calling on the international community not to recognize the results of Friday’s presidential election in Iran “because censorship and a crackdown on journalists are preventing a democratic electoral process.”
“Arrests of journalists and media censorship measures are growing as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ‘victory’ continues to be disputed,” the organization said in a statement.
The group cited a litany of apparent censorship measures taken since protests and riots gripped Teheran and other parts of the country in the wake of a surprising — and now doubtful — landslide victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
From the Reporters Without Borders statement:
In addition to the 10 or so pro-opposition websites already censored, two Farsi-language TV stations were partially jammed yesterday and the mobile phone network was disrupted. Ahmadinejad supporters continued to pressure Iranian news media not to carry reports about election fraud. Four of the main pro-reform newspapers have been closed or prevented from criticising the official election results.
Reporters Without Borders has been able to confirm that journalists Reza Alijani (winner of the 2001 Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France press freedom prize), Hoda Sabaer, Ahamad Zeydabadi and Taghi Rahmani have been arrested. There is no word of about 10 other journalists who have either been arrested or gone into hiding.
The group listed a number of news organizations whose websites or broadcasts have been shut down, including the Farsi-language services of the BBC and Voice of America. The Arabic-language news network Al-Arabiya says its Teheran office has been forced to shut down.
Reuters news service reports that more than 100 reformists have been detained by Iranian authorities, including Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of the former president Khatami. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president, told the news service the reformist politicians were “taken from their homes” on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi is reported to have appealed the results of Friday’s election to the Guardian Council, Iran’s legislative body. Mousavi is seeking to have the results cancelled.
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I wonder what the percentage of electronic voting machines is in Iran and whether Diebold and Karl Rove have been over there as paid consultants. Or do they just steal it the old-fashioned way, in a back room with no witnesses? Perhaps when international observers get through with Iran’s election fraud, they can come to America and try to get a handle on ours.
lol.. interesting question.
i did hear on the bbc that the opposition was very worried about the thousands of ‘mobile polling stations’.
Ahmadinejad has enormous grassroots support out where the grass is. You wanted permanent dedicated polling stations built nationwide?
At all events, the tactics are the same: if Washington doesn’t like a government, it says it’s a one-party dictatorship. If the government then sets up a few parties, holds elections and the government Washington dislikes still wins, then you say the elections were rigged.
Why is it that the kind of people you want nowhere near power are the ones that keep wrenching it away from decent people?
I don’t know that there’s any real hope for our species. Too many are shoved into illogical, superstitious, brain washed boxes for anything good to come of this (without massive destruction and loss of life).
Short of pulling out your hair and screaming, the only calm thing I can think to say is “Mean people suck”.
Love of anything except mom, dad, bro, sis and such is the product of conditioning. We have Pavlovian salivation before our respective flags because we were conditioned that way.
Obviously, one man’s conditioning is another man’s brainwash.
Don’t give up on the species though: China has been around for 3,000, 5,000 or 8,000 years (depending on how you wanna count) so who knows, the USA might make it to 1,000?
Iranians in the streets. Good.
If the American sheep had taken to the streets after the Bush/Gore decision of 2000 instead of believing that politicians and the supreme court will do whats best for this country; we wouldn’t be in many of the messes we now find ourselves.
Oh Well. Maybe next time.
In America, the media is already much more controlled than in Iran. In America when they steal elections, it already isn’t on TV where as in Iran, they have to shut down the truth.. In America, the truth is simply never let out to begin with (because they know that if the truth started getting out to the masses, then they shut down the broadcast, we’d have 10s of millions in the streets).
I think you have underestimated American apathy.
” A hungry man is an angry man.”
Seen any McDonald’s closed lately?
there’s that, too.. but not all those rioting in nations where the elections are being stolen are “hungry unwashed masses”..
America seems unique in the modern world; the masses won’t be motivated until they are pushed back 200 years (as noted, because they are apathetic [and ignorant]).
Looks like a test run for U.S. internet control.
Hummm.
Interesting problem this presents..
Is..
1 This a reaction brought on by US/Israeli interference in the election or an attempt to manipulate public opinion over the outcome? After all, if Ahmadinejad suspects a coup at work, of course he will react. I mean, It’s NOT LIKE we haven’t installed US puppet dictators in Iran before. Remember the Shah?
2 This Ahmadinejad stealing an election and trying to control popular sentiment in the aftermath of his theft?
PS: Presstv is down..
PSS: Remember those damaged internet cables in the region a while back.. Seemed like they were breaking all the time. Wonder if that has something to do with this?
PSSS: Mike Rivero at whatreallyhappened is claiming Twitter is being used to spread propaganda?
Propaganda or the legitimate outcry of an outraged, cheated public?
????????
I shouldn’t be surprised if it were true, but I know not.
At all events, Skype is used against China to propagate utter rubbish: I used to regularly get messages from new contacts and the contents were something only newly landed foreigners would take seriously.
Haven’t had any for about six months now, so I guess Skype responded after folks kept flagging such instant messages as spam.
RE:
International press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders is calling on the international community not to recognize the results of Friday’s presidential election in Iran “because censorship and a crackdown on journalists are preventing a democratic electoral process.”
Maybe you can get Demi Moore to strenuosly object too like she did in the movie ‘ A few Good men ‘ ?
Look?
The Persian Empire imploded a long time ago, there seems to be strife from every quarter in todays Iran, this is yet another example of the historical instability there, to recognize the lection, illegitimate or not isnt going to matter to those who seek to retain power there.
Historic instability or historic destablization from abroad.
The other option was Rafsanjani’s dark horse candidate, an ex-hardliner who did his homework to rebrand himself as another little JFK doll. Rafsanjani is a multimillionaire in any currency; Ahmadinejad’s massive popularity lies with the rockbottom poor and he knew how to mobilize his voters.
See MK Bhadrakumar at http://www.atimes.com for details.
the article gives no numbers…?
were the polls 50-50? did he win 99-1?
Um, the homepage says “Foreign Press in Iran Arrested”…
All I see here is that (1) the BBC and VOA have been jammed and (2) Reuters seems open for business.
Am I missing something?
Is somebody sloppy with her/his headlines?
Or is it wilfully misleading?