Blogging in Iran....sort of!

By accessing this blog you are doubtlessly a blogger or at least into checking out the odd blog here, there and anywhere.

In most countries starting up a blog is pretty straight-forward. The opposite pertains to repressive regimes. Take Iran as an example - where setting up a blog isn't all that easy, as the Guardian Unlimited explains:

"Want to start a blog in Iran? Then you'll have to register it with the government - which has recently begun to require that all bloggers register at samandehi.ir, a site established by the ministry of culture of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.

All you need do is give your personal information, including your blog's username and password - otherwise it will be filtered and blocked so that nobody in Iran, and perhaps outside too, will be able to access it. This has led to an outcry among many Iranian bloggers who consider the net an independent and free forum for expression."

And of even greater concern:

"..... censorship isn't just for blogs. Most of Iran's reformist newspapers have been shut down, rooftop satellite dishes are banned, books are censored and relationships between boys and girls are limited. Yet blogs also play a major - even growing - role in modern Iranian society. This is why almost all the leading candidates for Iran's last presidential election ran their own blogs."

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