Iranian journalist Siamak Qaderi was sentenced to four years in prison and 60 lashes on 21 January. Qaderi, a blogger, was charged disseminating of false information liable to disrupt public order and publishing anti-government propaganda. Last year he was fired from the government news agency IRNA for interviewing gay Iranians and posting the interviews on his blog. Qaderi has been in detention since July 2010, his arrest was linked to eyewitness accounts he published of the opposition protests of the Green Movement.