Friday, August 26, 2005

Committee to Protect Bloggers

I have been tracking these bloggers in the ME whom have been imprisoned for speaking their mind. It is not right nor just. I am going to provide for you the e-mail I received so you may add your voice where it is needed most.
I'm writing briefly to ask you not to forget Mojtaba Saminejad, the Iranian blogger who was sentenced to two years in prison for criticizing his government for arresting other bloggers. Mojtaba is mixed in with the general population of a prison that is overwhelmingly populated by hardcore violent criminals. We have started an online petition for him here: Motjaba. It sends a separate email to the major Iranian decision-makers in charge of Mojtaba's case and in charge of registering global public opinion about Iran. Every time someone signs it sends a separate email to each recipient. By signing it you are saying, "We haven't forgotten; we won't forget." Please sign it, publish a post about it (if you have a blog) and let others know.

We have also created a similar petition for Omid Sheikhan: Omid. Omid was arrested 9 months ago and tortured. He faces a court date in early October. We want to convince the Iranian authorities to drop the spurious charges against him. Please do the same for Omid as you do for Mojtaba -- sign, post and pass it on.

For anyone who might think this sort of thing doesn't do much, read this article about another imprisoned Iranian blogger, Sina Motallebi: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1073610866.php.

Mojtaba's petition has over 400 and Omid's over 300 signatories. We need a lot more than that.

Thanks for your help.
I have already signed, so I cannot sign again. I am praying for your help. You know how precious our freedoms are, and you know at price we will pay to keep them. All that is being asked of you is to sign these petitions. Please help these men. Help your fellow bloggers...before they start shutting us down!