My friend Hossein who was at SOAS with me has been imprisoned in Iran for now 163 days. He was arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel. Please help spread the news annd help get him released.** Hossein Derakhshan has been nominated by Index On Censorship for "the Economist New Media Award 2009" for it's contribution to the Iranian blogosphere. May this nomination help to more to raise voices on his behalf.
- http://awards.indexoncensorship.org/
1. Please Sign the petition, available in 4 languages, asking for his immediate release. (FYI-GB is Royaume Uni in French. It took me ages to work it out!)
2. For bloggers and journalist. Please help spread the word.
3. If you have personal story to tell about Hossein Derakhshan, or if you want to contribute by writing something that we will post on freetheblogfather' site.
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The Iranian blogging phenomenon was triggered after the contribution of Hossein Derakhshan on how-to to write blogs in Farsi and one of the most recurrent themes analysed by academics interested in Iran's youth culture.
Hossein Derakhshan now imprisoned since last November 2008 contributed in establishing bridges of communication between a country with a limited public sphere like Iran and the rest of the world. The phenomenon he contributed to represents the need for alternative platforms of expression and is a vehicle for social development and assertion of Iranian Identity both within and outside the boundaries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the usage of new media technology sets Iran the challenge of global free-flow of information.Hossein’s arrest is the prove of the danger that new media set to the I.R.I. This leads one to question: is Iran ready to use those media to develop its own “Neither East nor West” particular political, social and economical non-western-like model in setting the country back into the race of worlds most influential country? Or is it going to use them to increase its isolation from the international panorama by threatening the safety of Iranian online journalists and bloggers hence contributing to it’s own demonization?
Hossein Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian blogger and journalist and a fellow student at SOAS, University of London, who spent the last eight years between Canada and the U.K before his return to Tehran in the past month of October 2008. Hossein, aka Hoder, is hailed as the "blogfather" of Iranian Blogging because in 2001 he published guidelines of how to blog in Farsi on the site blogger.com. contributing to the boom in blogging that has led to Iran being today amongst the ten biggest blogging nations of the world according to Technorati statistics on the State of the Blogosphere.
According to Derakhshan (Khosravi 2008:157), the popularity of blogs among young people in Iran symbolises the great changes that Iranian society has undergone during the past two decades. The Iranian blogosphere is a reflection of the increasing tolerance in Iran’s society, he says. (1) His blog Editor:Myself or Rooznegar blog by Sina Motallebi his fellow blogger and journalist, were held by the Online Journalism Review as powerful tools for free-speech that linked Iran with the West.
Read the middle section HERE
Let us hope that Hossein Derakhshan's passionate quest for a progressive and tolerant Iran does not fade with his arrest and – for now – uncertain future.
If you want to contribute to the Request of the immediate release of Hossein Derakhshan visit the website freetheblogfather.com and sign the petition.
By Maria Rijo Lopes da Cunha.
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