:: LNR Journalism ::

Iran government urged to save journalists: Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi

DOHA Centre for Media Freedom :: Friends and former colleagues of Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi, supported by activists and journalists have expressed their worries on the living conditions of the prominent Iranian journalist arrested in 2009 in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election.

Amouyi, an experienced journalist who had been writing for twenty years on the economy for newspapers such as Jame’eh, Toos, Sobh-e Emrooz, Norooz, Shargh, , and Sarmayeh, was sentenced to five years in prison after he criticised Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet in one of his pieces. His wife, Jila Baniyaghoub was arrested with him on 20 June 2009.

Continue to read www.dc4mf.org

The campaign for the release of Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi on Facebook

Stuxnet was work of U.S. and Israeli experts

Washington Post :: Stuxnet, a damaging cyberattack against Iran’s nuclear program was the work of U.S. and Israeli experts and proceeded under the secret orders of President Obama, who was eager to slow that nation’s apparent progress toward building an atomic bomb without launching a traditional military attack, say current and former U.S. officials.

Report by  Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick, www.washingtonpost.com

'Reporter's privilege' under fire from Obama administration amid broader war on leaks

Huffington Post :: The Obama administration Friday morning continued its headlong attack on the right of reporters to protect their confidential sources in leak investigations. Before a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Department of Justice lawyer argued that New York Times reporter James Risen should be forced to testify in the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who is charged with leaking classified information to Risen about a botched plot against the Iranian government.

Continue to read Dan Froomkin | Michael Calderone, www.huffingtonpost.com

AFP: Iran curbs foreign-sourced email providers

AFP | Google :: Iran's telecommunications ministry has barred local banks, insurance firms and telephone operators from using foreign-sourced emails to communicate with clients, a specialist weekly said on Saturday. "The telecommunications minister has ordered the use of domain names ending with .ir" belonging to Iran, Asr Ertebatat reported.

Continue to read www.google.com

Iran slams Google over nameless gulf on Google maps

SAPA-AFP | mybroadband.co.za :: Iran on Saturday criticised Google for leaving the body of water separating it from the Arabian peninsula nameless on its online map service, saying it would hurt the Internet giant’s credibility. “Google fabricating lies… will not have any outcome but for its users to lose trust in the data the company provides,” a deputy in Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, Bahman Dorri, told the official IRNA news agency.

HT: Nancy Messieh, The Next Web

Continue to read mybroadband.co.za

Targeting companies delivering to Iran, Syria: Obama to cite new technologies in rights abuses

Reuters :: President Barack Obama will issue an order on Monday to allow imposition of sanctions on foreign nationals who use new technologies such as cell-phone tracking and Internet monitoring to help carry out human rights abuses, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

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This week in censorship: News from Iran, India, Vietnam, and China

Electronic Frontier Foundation :: The Islamic Republic of Iran has recently become notorious for its efforts to create a “halal” Internet. This week, a security researcher found that Iranian authorities published a “Request for Information” (RFI) seeking details on new types of censorship tools that are available in the market. Ars Technica reported that the Persian language RFI calls for “proper conditions for domestic experts in order to build a healthy Web and organize the current filtering situation.” The deadline for response was yesterday, April 19.

This Week in Censorship - Continue to read www.eff.org

Iran suspends accreditation for Reuters in Tehran

Reuters :: The Iranian government has suspended the press accreditation for Reuters staff in Tehran after the publication of a video story on women's martial arts training which contained an error. Reuters, the news arm of Thomson Reuters, the global news and information group, corrected the story after the martial arts club where the video was filmed made a complaint.

Continue to read www.reuters.com

Free flow: Obama vows steps to breach Iranian 'electronic curtain'

Reuters :: President Barack Obama accused Iran on Tuesday of imposing an "electronic curtain" to stop the free flow of ideas and information into the Islamic republic and promised a new U.S. push to ease the Iranian people's access to the Internet.

Continue to read Matt Spetalnick, www.reuters.com

BBC suffers cyber-attack following Iran campaign

Reuters :: The BBC has suffered a sophisticated cyber-attack following a campaign by Iranian authorities against its Persian service, director-general Mark Thompson said on Wednesday. Thompson also reported attempts to jam satellite feeds of the British Broadcasting Corporation services into Iran and to swamp its London phone lines with automated calls.

Continue to read David Stamp, www.reuters.com