The Guardian reports that 29 year-old Omidreza Mirsayafi died in Tehran’s Evin prison on Wednesday, a little over a month after an Iranian judge gave him a two-and-a-half year sentence for posting comments on his blog about Iranian leaders. According to the Guardian,
Details of Mirsayafi’s deterioration in prison were given by Hesam Firoozi, an imprisoned doctor who witnessed his treatment. Firoozi, who has treated some of Iran’s best-known political activists, told Mirsayafi’s lawyer that medical staff had denied him proper care by failing to send him to hospital.
In addition to Iran, during the past year other nations including Egypt, Russia, China and Myanmar have imprisoned bloggers for their writing. In honor of these imprisoned journalists, to advocate for their release, and to keep them from being forgotten, here are some ways to take action:
- Join the Global Voices Advocacy anti-censorship network and support their projects: a guide to anonymous blogging, the “Access Denied Map” which maps online censorship throughout the world, and other great tools for digital advocacy.
- Sign all of the petitions at Reporters Without Borders (RWB) advocating for the release of imprisoned journalists around the world. Read RWB’s internet pages to stay up-to-date with the latest campaigns against internet censorship and to download their excellent Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents.
- Visit the Free Kareem page to find out what you can do to join the fight to release imprisoned Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer.
- Visit the Committee to Protect Bloggers’ clearinghouse of information about and for threatened bloggers. It has extensive links to organizations and projects working in the areas of internet and press freedom. You can subscribe here to receive updates, or join their cause on Facebook. There’s also a Facebook group specifically aimed at holding Iran accountable for Omidreza Mirsayafi’s death.
Tags: censorship · Committee To Protect Bloggers · Free Kareem · Global Voices Advocacy · imprisoned blogger · imprisoned journalists · Internet Censorship · Kareem Amer · Omidereza Mirsayafi · Reporters Without Borders
