BuzzMachine

At a session on the future of Iran, the panelists talk about blogs as central to political information and discussion. One participant says that “talk of blogs can sometimes trivialize the quality of information in Iran” but that the people read the New York Times and Washington Post and that a role of blogs is to “boomerang” that into society.

The Telegraph has a good story on blogs in Iran and the regime’s fruitless efforts to contain them.

But the Iranian authorities are fighting a losing battle to crush these new outlets of dissent. As fast as one perpetrator is tracked down and closed, another rises in its place and takes up the cause.

The authorities have reportedly spent millions on programmes designed to filter cyberspace and block access to controversial sites, with names such as “regime change Iran”, “free thoughts on Iran” and “women against fundamentalism”.