Posted on 06/14/2009 9:11:49 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The Iranian government is mounting a campaign to disrupt independent media organisations and websites that air doubts about the validity of the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation's president, according to various sources.
Supporters of Mir Hussein Moussavi, the presidential challenger whom President Ahmedinejad claims to have defeated with 63.4 per cent of the vote, have emulated the internet campaign techniques used by Barack Obama to appeal to the young generation of Iranians who make up the majority of his support base.
But reports from Tehran say that social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, the micro-blogging website, were taken down after Mr Ahmadinejad claimed victory. SMS text messaging, a preferred medium of communication for young Iranians, has also been disabled. This is widely suspected to be the result of government interference, but could equally be caused by the poor quality of the network and the heavy demand it is experiencing.
Reporters Without Borders, the media organisation that campaigns for a free press around the world, said in a statement today: "The blocking of access to foreign news media has been stepped up. In addition to the blocking of the BBC’s website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the Voice of America and BBC — which are very popular in Iran — have been partially jammed.
"The Internet is now very slow, like the mobile phone network. YouTube and Facebook are hard to access and pro-reform sites. . . are completely inaccessible."
A spokesman for the BBC's Persian service, which is based in London, said: "The BBC can confirm that its Persian television service continues to suffer interference to its broadcast on the Hotbird 6 satellite. The problem began just after 1245 GMT on Friday 12 June and affects transmissions across the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at technology.timesonline.co.uk ...
> The best thing everyone could pray for would be the regular army siding with the protestors. Thus without outside meddling, the revolution would have teeth and not just voices.
AMEN.
Sure he does. He's already submitted an application to join.
My exact thought this morning as I was thumbing through my copy of "The Reagan Diaries".
Great quote from his first few days in office.
"Intelligence reports say Castro is very worried about me. I'm very worried that we can't come up with something to justify his worrying".
I don't think, were Reagan in power now, he would let a crisis like this go to waste!!
that’s right — this internet/text-message crowd-rallying tool has been used at least as far back as the anti-World Bank/IMF protests of the late 90’s in Seattle.
It did not take to long the last time riots started to calm things down. Will it be different this time around.
Thanks Ernest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.