in Iran. Reporters Without Borders is keeping on top of the story:

“The government is now attacking blogs, the last bastion of freedom on a network that is experiencing ever tighter control,” said the worldwide press freedom organisation. “At the same time, an Iranian delegate is sitting on a UN-created working group on Internet governance. The international community should condemn this masquerade,” it added.

Three webloggers identified only by their first names were arrested on 29 October 2004. They were : Dariush (http://www.dariushkabir.com), Omid (http://www.shurideh.com) and Payvand (http://gayaneh.net).

Mojtaba Saminejad was arrested at the beginning of November for speaking out against the arrest of his three colleagues in his blog (http://man-namanam.blogspot.com).

Farid Modaressi, a member of the student organisation the Office to Consolidate Unity, was arrested on 28 November on the order of the prosecutor’s office in the city of Qom. He had posted a number of articles on his weblog (http://farid.blogset.com) exposing persistent harassment in the city by members of the conservative movement. Two of his brothers were reportedly arrested two days earlier and are apparently still being held.

Send your protests to the U.N Working Group on Internet Governance, care of Edoardo Bellando. E-mail: bellando@un.org