You say you want a revolution ...

I read this article about Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi dying in prison. To understand more, I listened to an interview with Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek reporter and read his New York Times oped open letter to Ayatollah Alli Khamenei titled, "Let My Colleagues Go".



Omidreza Mirsayafi - AP photo




Maziar Bahari- Huffington Post photo



This is an example of the difference between living in a country that doesn't allow freedom of speech and one which does. In Iran, it doesn't matter how main stream the views expressed in a blog are, they will be under scrutiny by the authorities. And, are apt to cause the author a trip to jail. Factions within the government of Iran are vying for power causing inconsistencies in interpretations of what is allowed and not allowed.

In America, we are now having a discussion about what can and cannot be published because of national security which was brought on by the publishing at Wikileaks.com of 390,000 Iraq war documents. Also, a discussion about how strident the political discourse has become and its effects has come about because of the Arizona shootings. How they will change our first amendment rights is still up in the air.