17 Jun 09 | Uncategorized
Pajamas media has published a translation of a “seven-point manifesto” circulating amongst protesters in Iran. It calls for:
1. Stripping Ayatollah Khamenei of his supreme leadership position because of his unfairness. Fairness is a requirement of a supreme leader.
2. Stripping Ahmadinejad of the presidency, due to his unlawful act of maintaining the position illegally.
3. Transferring temporary supreme leadership position to Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazery until the formation of a committee to reevaluate and adjust Iran’s constitution.
4. Recognizing Mir Hossein Mousavi as the rightfully elected president of the people.
5. Formation of a new government by President Mousavi and preparation for the implementation of new constitutional amendments.
6. Unconditional release of all political prisoners regardless of ideology or party platform.
7. Dissolution of all organizations — both secret and public — designed for the oppression of the Iranian people, such as the Gasht Ershad [Iranian morality police].
Hat-tip: Pajamas Media
16 Jun 09 | Uncategorized
The protests in Iran have been seen by many as conclusively proving the value of the Internet in organising and reporting civil movements.
Perhaps the tech-savviness is the only unsurprising element of the events of the past few days. Despite restrictions, Iran’s youth are remarkably active on the web, with Farsi the fourth most prevalant language in the blogosphere. As was pointed out at Internet Sans Frontieres:
“In 1979 revolutionary songs started to fill the streets of Tehran while the Shah was boarding the plane that brought him out of the country. Today the web is spreading and amplifying the news of the ongoing protests at last week’s election results.
In Iran there are more than six million web users, the majority of whom are under 25.”
Particular attention has been paid to the events on Twitter, with thousands around the world following #IranElection.
At friendfeed.com, you can view an aggregation of all related tweets coming out of Iran.
Citizen photojournalism hub Demotix is hosting pictures from its contributors in Iran here.
As foreign media have now been severely restricted (the BBC having already experienced jamming since Friday afternoon), these citizen sources may be the only way to find out what’s happening.
15 Jun 09 | Uncategorized
In rare footage from a year ago, President Ahmadinejad can be seen giving an open-air speech on the outskirts of Tehran. An official film crew, from the president’s office, has a monopoly filming presidential duties. As the camera panned from Ahmadinejad to the audience, it revealed an endless sea of people, seemingly hanging on his every word. It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing. There were men and women in attendance, but the crowd of literally thousands was segregated by gender.
The footage had been obtained by documentary filmmaker and Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari for a documentary he was making about Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad has always safeguarded the country’s hard-line tradition. When he was mayor of Tehran, he proposed burying a martyr from the Iran-Iraq war in every city square to remind Iranians of the eternal threat against their country and religion.
(more…)
15 Jun 09 | Uncategorized
Though the Iranian authorities seem determined to keep a grip on information getting in and out of the country following the weekend’s dubious election victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they have failed to shut down Twitter. You can follow what’s happening around in Iran and reaction from around the world at #IranElection, #Mousavi and #Tehran. The Tweeter persiankiwi is providing regular updates from Tehran.
Richard Sambrook has a good analysis of Twitter “coverage” of the events here.
Meanwhile, you can read an account of conditions for those detained by riot police in Tehran here. It’s written by George McLeod, a reporter for Canada’s Globe and Mail, who was taken in by police last night.
And the BBC has a good round up of the clampdown here
