Blogging in Iran - History

History

Early 2001 was the beginning of emergence of a blogging culture, which rapidly developed. the Iranian government, which had strict controls in place for the print media and had shut down as many as 100 print newspapers. Iran has been listed consistently as among the bottom countries in violation of freedom of the press by Reporters without Borders. Yet the internet provided a new means for widespread readership which was,up until 2004, was mostly unregulated, providing an outlet for mostly youth to express themselves freely. In 2009, due to the contentious nature of the presidential elections, and the rise of the green party movement, internet crackdowns have become far more strict. Nonetheless, as of 2009, according to the CIA world factbook, 8.214 million internet users in Iran, ranked 35th in the world. Blogs range from updates on art and critiquing movies, to following injustices of political prisoners. Diasporic Persian and Iranian blogs have also become a trend as a means to be part of an international online community. Blogs may be used as a virtual means of social protest without assembly, such as when thousands of bloggers renamed their blogs Akbar Ganji for a week in 2005, in support of the arrested critic of the regime. Hossien Derakhshan, the unofficial “godfather” of the blogosphere, set his up in Canada in September 2001. He was later arrested. In 2011, Iranian Authorities have executed and imprisoned more journalists and bloggers than any other countries, more than 600 people in one year.