Cyrus Farivar reports on an online group aimed at promoting free speech and supporting bloggers who've been imprisoned for their writings. The March 18th movement was inspired by the death of a young Iranian blogger in a Tehran prison.
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MARCO WERMAN: A different sort of former detainee is closer to home today. Roxana Saberi boarded a plane from Austria for the United States. Saberi is the American-Iranian journalist who was imprisoned by Iran for four months. Her release earlier this month made headlines all over the globe, but there are other writers who wind up in Iranian prisons whose names aren't that well known. About two months ago, a young Iranian blogger died in a Tehran prison. His death spurred some activists to create an online group in his memory. It's aimed at protecting the rights and safety of bloggers around the world. Cyrus Farivar has the story.
CYRUS FARIVAR: Omidreza Mirsayafi was a 29-year-old blogger who mostly wrote about Iranian music and culture. However, his blog caught the attention of Iranian authorities. They accused him of insulting Iran's leaders and making propaganda against the state. Mirsayafi was sent to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison in December 2008. He died there on March 18th, 2009. Curt Hopkins is co-founder of the new online group, the March 18th Movement. Hopkins says it's still not clear how Mirsayafi died, though he was believed to have been depressed and had access to sedatives.
CURT HOPKINS: The long and short of it was that he died. And he died if not as direct action by his Iranian prison guards at least through inaction, through neglect. At that point, he became the first and so far only blogger to die in custody. The whole goal of the March 18th Movement is to make sure he's the last.
FARIVAR: One of Hopkins' partners in the March 18th group is Esra Al Shafei. She's a Bahrani human rights activist and founder of the website FreeKareem.org. That site is dedicated to another blogger known as Kareem Amer of Egypt. The 24-year-old was imprisoned in 2007 for crimes including defaming Egypt's President. Al Shafei says that bloggers who live in free countries have a responsibility to speak out for those who can't speak for themselves.
AL SHAFEI: The entire world should be aware that blogging here is not a right. It's something that people take a risk for and people really should use their own freedoms if they're abroad, like in Europe or in Australia or anywhere there is conservatively more freedoms, and they should really get involved and be aware and take action in order to prevent any deaths or any actions against bloggers to happen.
FARIVAR: Al Shafei hopes the March 18th website will become a forum for blogger videos that speak out for free expression and against persecution. She adds it could also provide concrete help for imprisoned bloggers like Kareem Amer.
AL SHAFEI: We also used the Internet to raise donations for Kareem, which he received physically. We raised donations online and we sent it to his friend in Alexandria, and she sent it personally to Kareem. He can use that, for example, to increase his mealtime or use the money to bribe the prison guards to go to the bathroom and to just make his life within prison much more convenient and safer.
FARIVAR: Another blogger, Omid Memarian, is more than familiar with the hardships of life as a political prisoner. He's an Iranian journalist and blogger who was arrested in 2004 and held in solitary confinement in a Tehran prison. He says at the time, there wasn't much outcry from the blogosphere.
OMID MEMARIAN: Four or five years ago, it was much different. It was a very new phenomenon and even though we had a kind of reaction amongst some bloggers, it was not that kind of unity or a kind of big voice among them. Now, people really react, people put the news of their arrests on their blogs and really cover them.
FARIVAR: Some have suggested that publicizing these cases may put imprisoned bloggers in even more danger. But Memarian says the fact that activists like the March 18th movement are rallying to bloggers' cause can only help their situation. For The World, I'm Cyrus Farivar.
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March 18th movement