2015 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch: The family of journalist Emaddedin Baghi have visited him in prison. Baghi’s wife Fatemeh Kamali said, “Although he became weak, his spirit is very strong.”
1920 GMT: P.S. Fatemeh Karroubi has said that she will file a lawsuit against the Iranian Press Supervisory Board for shutting down Iran Dokht magazine.
1900 GMT: Karroubi Watch. Fatemeh Karroubi, Mehdi Karroubi’s wife, has written an open letter to the Iranian nation after the closure of the magazine Iran Dokht and an attack on her home by plainclothesmen who threw eggs and tomatoes: “I should feel sorry for the country when its Government can’t even tolerate the only press that will critique it.”
2045 GMT: But There are Limits. One leading international media organisation is proclaiming that it has mobilised itself to cover Thursday’s events in Iran. It has even set up a dedicated Twitter account for Iran, announced throughout today in a series of tweets.
Only problem is that this broadcaster/website hasn’t quite got the hang of using Twitter for gathering latest news rather than for self-promotion. Total number of Twitter accounts it is following? 7, all of whom happen to be its own staff.
2020 GMT: 22 Bahman is Back! The “Western” media, which only 12 hours ago seemed to be oblivious to anything Iran-related unless it had the word “nuclear”, has re-discovered the internal events and tensions. Numerous services are carrying the report of the Associated Press on the Supreme Leader’s speech (1245, 1420, & 1940 GMT), while The New York Times picks up on Reuters’ summary of the statements of Mir Hossein Mousavi (1635 GMT) and Mohammad Khatami (separate entry). Even America’s ABC News has taken notice, catching up with Saturday’s interview of Mehdi Karroubi in a German magazine.
1930 GMT: Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, have visited the family of detainee Feizollah Arabsorkhe and claimed “investigators have been challenged by their daily conversations and dialogues with the children of the Revolution”.
Feizollah Arabsorkhi is a leading member of the reformist Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution and has been in prison since June.
Mr. Mousavi insisted that political activists and youth in the post-election protests are not “sabotaging or destroying”: “If the media were free and people were allowed to have their say, we would not have fallen to this state.”
1915 GMT: Back from a break to find a couple of stories on a relatively quiet day, as various forces prepare for 13 Aban.
Journalist Fariba Pajooh has ended her hunger strike, begun on 26 October, because of serious health problems. Pajooh was arrested on 22 August and has been detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Iranian authorities have barred Emaddedin Baghi from leaving the country to collect the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Baghi is a prominent opponent of the death penalty in Iran and founder of the Society for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights.
1525 GMT: The Facebook site associated with Mir Hossein Mousavi has published an English translation of the account of Mehdi Karroubi’s meeting this weekend with the student organisation Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat. Beyond his claim that votes were allocated in advance of the Presidential election on 12 June, Karroubi’s speech was a rallying call: Read the rest of this entry »
2015 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch: The family of journalist Emaddedin Baghi have visited him in prison. Baghi’s wife Fatemeh Kamali said, “Although he became weak, his spirit is very strong.”
2125 GMT: More University Protests. In addition to today’s demonstration and hunger strike at Sharif University (
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