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Release Iranian "Blogfather," Says Nobel Peace Prize Winner

by Terrence O'Brien on December 17, 2008 at 08:45 AM

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Calls for the Release of Iranian Last month, the so called "blogfather" of Iran, Hossein Derakhshan was arrested during a visit to Tehran and accused of spying for Israel. Nobel Peace Prize winner and Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi is now calling for his release. She told a news conference in London, "I very much hope that he will be released soon, because prison is not the place for journalists and for bloggers."

Derakhshan made a name for himself after moving to Canada in 2000 where he started up a blog, in Persian, that taught Iranians how to set up their own blogs and was critical of the government.

Sadly, arrests like this are far from uncommon. Oppressive regimes like those in Iran, Egypt, Malaysia, and China have arrested journalists and bloggers in higher numbers with each passing year. There isn't much that we can do except repeat Ebadi's call for his release and add our voice to the cascade of those opposing censorship and the suppression of dissidents. [From: Reuters]

Tags: arrest, blog, blogfather, blogger, censorship, hossein derakhshan, HosseinDerakhshan, iran, shirin ebadi, ShirinEbadi

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