Weblogsky: Hoder's going home

Hoder's going home

Hoder Iranian blogger Hossein (Hoder) Derakhshan is going home to Iran for a visit. He's understandably concerned about the risk of going back, since he's been openly critical of the Iran's rulers, who had who arrested journalist Sina Motallebi and held him for 23 days, partly because of his blog. Motallebi attributes his release to attention from bloggers and j ournalists:

They didn't expect the pressure from Webloggers and foreign media in my case. They think I'm an individual [freelance] journalist and not affiliated with any political party, I'm not an insider. So they think that when they arrested me, there wouldn't be strong pressure to release me.

But the community of bloggers came together and helped me, and spread the news around the Web, and became united. There was a petition with more than 4,000 signatures on one site. And there was coverage of the story in the foreign media. And there was pressure from other countries that were concerned with human rights. I think they found the cost of arresting me more than they thought before.

Hoder's done even more than Motallebi to push for free speech and more in Iran, so his trip clearly has risks, though there's also hope that he "will come back and tell the world how vibrant, alive and amazing Iran is these days, and how the world can help Iran move toward a more transparent and democratic system." He's asking bloggers and others to support his effort – first, by making contributions toward the cost of the trip; second, by providing support if he "gets into trouble." He has a list telling us what we can do in that case – spread the word, get the media involved, etc. And "Don't be surprised: Under duress, I may confess that I've been on the Bush Administration's payroll to undermine the regime by helping to spread use of weblogs; I've tried to weaken moral values of young Iranians by promoting western culture and values; I've been part of a secret network of Israeli and American spies; I've distributed large amounts of money to Iranian dissidents, activists, bloggers and journalists inside in Iran so they can topple the regime. Nor should you be amazed to hear me say that I've been running a virtual brothel in Tehran from my apartment in Toronto; I've been trafficking heroin and cocaine to Iran; and I've been secretly dating Natalie Portman and Kyra Knightly and have even an illegitimate child with Rachel Weisz." [Link]

jon posted this at 8:42 AM
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