Iran clamps down on foreign media
Authorities in Iran have announced sweeping new restrictions on foreign media, effectively confining journalists to their offices and hotels. Read more here
Iran: “I will continue to report, but I fear that I may be arrested”
Reporter Saeed Kamali Dehghan describes the struggle to get information in and out of Tehran
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"Iran’s civil liberties are regularly eroded as part of a ten-year political cycle"
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.
Tweeting in Tehran
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