Iranian Government Cracks Down on Blogging

Roxana Saberi, Channel NewsAsia:

Over the past few years, blogging has been booming in the Islamic Republic of Iran. To blog is the American slang term for writing a web log - a log on the World Wide Web of a person's thoughts, reactions and photos tied to events in their own life or anywhere in the world.

Many Iranians have turned to blogs as a new avenue for self-expression and to gain information. But the regime is cracking down on this hobby. READ MORE

News, ideas and rumours are reaching Iranians through an untraditional but increasingly popular route - blogging.

Some estimates put the number of Iran's internet users at 5 million and the number of blogs in the Farsi language at up to 100,000. About a third of those are said to originate in Iran and the rest abroad.

In the past few years, Iranians who feel freedom of the press is limited and those looking for independent information have moved into the blogosphere.

19-year-old Shams says he and his friends have used blogs to meet people.

He said: "Girls and boys can't be seen in public together. They can't set up an appointment outside. And many have limits on using the phone. A father says to his daughter you can't use the phone. So she says, Dad, I want to use the Internet to study."

But Iran's regime has been cracking down on this popular form of communication. It has ordered Internet service providers to block a number of weblogs.

The popular weblog "Orkut," where Iranians made webpages introducing themselves, has been blocked for the past few months.

"I was a member of Orkut until it was closed. I didn't use it a lot but I was a member," said one user.

And though some creative Iranians have found ways to get around the filters, internet cafes say they feel sorry for their disappointed customers.

"The morality police ordered our Internet Service Provider to close the ISP sites. We don't have any access anymore," said an Iranian.

Still, some government officials are trying to use blogs to their own advantage.

Last year, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former Reformist vice president, began the first blog by a member of the Iranian cabinet.

And in the recent presidential elections, most candidates used weblogs and websites to get their messages out to the Iranian people.

Despite the threat of government censorship and punishment, blogs are opening up Iran's society, culture and politics.