Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb posts a troubling story about Iran, a country who already imprisons bloggers and execute citizens at an ambitious rate. The religiously conservative government is considering execution as punishment for bloggers who establish " sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy. Apostasy means the abandonment of a religion. The official Iranian news agency reports that the bill is intended to toughen punishment for harming mental security in society."
When Scoble and I were writing our book we had a good deal of trouble finding the right title. The book began as "The Red Couch," and became "Naked Conversations." For a lng time in-between, we wanted to name it "Blog or Die," until Steven Streight sent us a crisp comment, "In too many countries, the choice is really 'blog AND die.' Your title is in extremely poort taste."
We could not argue with his viewpoint and changed the name of the book in response. It seems to me the petty battles of some if us bloggers in the West are dwarfed by the harsh realities of everyday people who risk imprisonment and execution exercizing rights that we in the West consider "self evident."
Happy Independence Day all you US citizens out there. Let us be happy for what we have.
[NOTE; The BBC's Cyrus Farivar just contacted me. He has posted a more indepth file on PRI's The World.
