Iranian Bloggers May Want to Switch Professions
The often very liberal Iranian parliament is debating whether or not to add blogging to their list of offenses punishable by death. That’s right: if the measure goes through, Iranian bloggers who write about something the state finds undesirable may face execution.
When it comes to executions, Iran makes Texas look like San Francisco. Iran put 317 people to the death penalty in 2007, a whopping 291 more than the Lone Star State. Now the Iranian version of Markos Moulitsas is probably booking the first ticket out of Tehran.
In the past few years, many Iranian bloggers have been imprisoned, and/or had their blogs censored by the police. Apparently, this wasn’t a strong enough deterrent. With such vague requirements for execution including “establishing websites and weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy,” this law would serve to create a deep sense of fear in bloggers to write about anything that could be construed as meeting the stated criteria for a death penalty offense. The self-censorship alone that comes from the fear being fostered by the Iranian government will be enough to make the leaders satisfied.
Iran is a pretty messed up place, obviously. We at Equari would like to state for the record our opposition to the execution of bloggers. No word yet on Nick Denton’s position on this issue.
Story via Hamid Tehrani at Global Voices Online
Technorati Tags: iran, blogging
