On the Web: ‘Something must be done’

From 'South Park' to serious
From the San Francisco Chronicle is the story of a 25-year-old IT director who is helping set up proxy servers for those in Iran to use to communicate.

"Little about Austin Heap's first online venture, a site hosting free episodes of the cartoon 'South Park,' suggested he would one day use his computer skills to challenge a government.
But for the past few days, Heap ... has been on the virtual front lines of the crisis in Iran, helping people there protest the presidential election, which opponents of the incumbent regime maintain was fraudulent."

Heap "has never followed Iranian news much. But as reports of the election began dominating Twitter —but not, he believed, American mainstream news — Heap felt the same defiant frustration that led him in the past to butt heads with the music and movie industry associations by creating file-sharing sites.

" 'I believe in free information,' he said Tuesday. 'And I especially have no room for a tyrannical regime shutting up a whole population. I was 13 and able to take on a huge company like Comedy Central from my bedroom. With a computer, everybody has the power to do that.' "

Photoshop at work?
"Ahmadinejad sucks at Photoshop," was one of the headline at BoingBoing.net, with a photo of a crowd of people with smiling faces at a "pro-Ahmadinejad rally (that) appears to have been clone-tool enhanced," said the site.

The day before, the site advised those trying to help Iranians with Internet access to not publicize Internet Protocol addresses — the numeral address of a computer — on Twitter, or to use the site's "hashtag," or short-hand phrase of "#iranelection."

"Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran." Instead, the site said "help cover the bloggers: Change your Twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and time zone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them."

From 'Revolutionary Road'
Saeed Valadbaygee calls his blog Revolutionary Road. His work has been covered by French and British publications, and Wednesday's blog entries included these reports:

"The widespread arrest of young protestors and opponents of the regime in Tehran and most other cities which began on Saturday has gained new dimensions. Thousands have so far been arrested.

"About 900 of the detainees have been transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Some 350 have been put in solitary confinement in Evin and the others are being held in Ward 240 of the prison. A number of the detained have been taken to safe-houses of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security."

Valadbaygee also wrote that a student sit-in at Tehran University continues in the university's mosque.

"Farhad Rahbar, an agent who was appointed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as dean of the university attempted to join the students in order to prevent any escalation of their actions, but his presence was met with further protests.

"Agents of the Revolutionary Guards late on Sunday raided the university dormitory and assaulted and arrested many of the students. In another development, more than 120 university professors collectively resigned in protest to the killings of students by suppressive forces, and they joined the protesters."

'Taps of discontent'
From Welt Online, the English translation of the German newspaper, Die Welt;

"In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the protest movement ... Iran’s top legislative body said it was prepared for a partial recount, but ruled out annulling the poll.

"The decision was taken by the 12-man Guardian Council ... Finland’s ambassador to Tehran, Heikki Puurunen, said the protests had come as a surprise to Iran’s leadership.

" 'It will continue for sure, because now in a way the taps of discontent have been opened ...There is no revolution coming in my view, but some kind of compromise will be made,' " he told Finland’s national broadcaster.

"But one middle-aged Iranian businessman who was in Tehran during the Islamic revolution three decades ago said he believed Wednesday’s mass demonstrations would go nowhere.

" 'At the end of the day nothing tangible will have changed,' said the man, who said he served as a senior official under the shah. 'It will be business as usual.' "

Media the 'mouthpiece of rioters'
Arab news agency Al Jazeera reported on the continuing tensions between the government and journalists.

"Political protesters apart, a dozen Iranian journalists and bloggers have been arrested in the aftermath of the contested presidential election, according to Reporters Without Borders.

"The government has put restrictions on foreign media coverage in Iran after the election, and authorities accused some foreign media of being the 'mouthpiece of rioters.'

" 'Some countries, in an uncalculated, hasty and rude reaction towards the illegal gatherings, have supported them contrary to democratic principles and regulations and have become the mouthpiece of the rioters' movement,' the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Several Internet sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked and the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force, warned the country's online media users they will face legal action if their uploads 'creates tensions.' "

In the story, Al Jazeera correspondent Alireza Ronaghi said, "Their move to crack down on Web sites and blogs is against their constitutional rights, but they see things spreading out of hand, so they feel it necessary to intervene at this point."

Ronaghi also noted in while many protestors Wednesday wore green, the color of Mousavi's campaign, he thought "spotted a new trend in their outfits."

"' I saw that it was becoming a prevalent trend to wear black ribbons as well, which is a sign of mourning in Iran, a sign of sympathy for the victims who have died in protests the days before,'  he said."

'The Iranians are sophisticated people'
The June 18 edition of the Times Online has this commentary about Iran's censorship and expulsion of foreign correspondents:

"Censorship is never the best way of winning hearts and minds. Any country that tries to hide its own affairs arouses the justified suspicion that it has something to hide. It was clear from the moment that Iran tried to rig the election and falsify the results that there would be trouble.

"The Iranians are sophisticated people, and the attempt to leave them in the dark is both insulting and counter-productive. They know that their own media are forbidden to reflect the lively debate about the political, social and economic future of their country. They know that the propaganda is distorted, the television images manipulated and the official announcements mendacious.

"They have turned therefore, in their millions, to alternative sources, where they hope the truth can be revealed: Web sites, social networks, mobile phones and foreign media.

"What these sources have revealed is a massive attempt at deceiving a nation. The beatings, the shootings, the vast protest rallies and the chants of crowds incensed at the authoritarian attempt to deny them a voice have all been captured by cameras, phones and reporters sending out accounts of what is going on."

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