Iran to Kill Bloggers?

When you see stories like this one, it makes you step aside and really think. As you know, yesterday was July 4th - Independence Day - here in the United States. I am actually able to make a living by blogging. We don’t have any governmental agency trying to regulate us (yet). But, over in Iran, any blogger who is "harming mental security in society" is very likely going to be subject to execution.

It is in debate in the Parliament in Iran. We’ll see what happens. I still find it unbelievable that it is even brought up. The Committee To Protect Bloggers brought light to the story. That site has a whole category dedicated to Iran and their ongoing battle with bloggers and the Internet. The government has also blocked access to sites like Facebook, Yahoo and Flickr.

As that site clearly has on the header, article #19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

I really do think everybody should be aware of their human rights and not take it for granted. It is easy to forget when you live here in the U.S., but stories like this one put things into perspective.

If you’re a blogger, and regardless of what you blog about, you are part of a movement of self-expression. And it is something that needs to be defended.

That’s just the way I feel.

As RWW so clearly says on their post, cultural relativism has its place, but this isn’t it. And, yes, I would agree with RWW that any help that can be provided to the people of Iran short of a U.S. invasion should be pursued.

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