"Choosing journalism as a profession in Iran is not like walking in a mine field. It is like stepping on a mine."
These were the words of Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Iranian reformist journalist and blogger, who spoke at the Miller Center of Public Affairs last night about the current state of censorship and the press in Iran.
Before Mirebrahimi delivered his speech, Politics Prof. R.K. Ramazani discussed the evolution of the struggle between conservatives and liberals in Iran dating back to the Middle Ages.
He explained that the liberal reform movement, a time of "opening of discussion and founding of newspapers," began in 1997 with the election of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. This flourishing of the press came to a halt when current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.
George Gilliam, Miller Center director of special programs, arranged for Mirebrahimi to speak at the Center after reading a feature about him and the struggle of young Iranians following the collapse of the reform movement in the Nov. 2005 issue of The New Yorker.
Because of language barriers, Gilliam read Mirebrahimi's speech to the audience, which had been translated into English by Ramazani and Farzaneh Milani, associate professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages.
"The profession of journalism has played a major role in the transformation of the Iranian society and the development of a civil society there," Mirebrahimi said. "It has also paid dearly for its activities. Newspapers have been shut down; journalists have repeatedly been arrested, persecuted, even faced death. Nevertheless, journalists continue to take advantage of any slight opening to inform the people and to reach the public."
Mirebrahimi discussed the ways by which censorship occurs in Iran today. He cited censorship through the "conservative and powerful Council of Guardians,"the prosecutor general, various editorial boards and self-censorship by fearful journalists.
Mirebrahimi also highlighted the danger of pursuing free speech in a country faced with such censorship.
Ramazani said Mirebrahimi worked for numerous reformist newspapers in Iran for nine years. In 2004, however, Mirebrahimi was arrested and held in solitary confinement for 60 days for his work in journalism.
"The space was enough for him to lie down," Ramazani said. "No pillow, no blanket, no light. Constant interrogations, 1 a.m. to 8 p.m. He was beaten. His head on the wall, on the table, anywhere possible."
After his speech, Mirebrahimi fielded questions from the audience with the aid of Ramazani and Milani's interpretations.
Questions about Internet use and blogging in Iran were discussed, and Mirebrahimi emphasized their importance in breaking the "monopoly of usage of information."
He said more than 7.5 million people use the Internet in Iran, almost 6 million more than in Saudi Arabia, the Middle Eastern country with the second greatest number of Internet users. Furthermore, Iran has the fourth greatest number of bloggers in the world.
"Each of these Web bloggers becomes an interpreter, a relayer of the news," he said. "Paradoxically, as censorship has increased in Iran, the number of Web bloggers has also increased."
Despite the current situation in Iran, Mirebrahimi said he still has hope for the future.
"We must continue to hope and to not get tired," he said.
Ramazani emphasized the divide between the Ahmadinejad regime and the Iranian people.
Ahmadinejad "doesn't represent ... what is going on in Iran," he said. "What is really going on is our new generation of Iranian thinkers, such as our speaker [Mirebrahimi]. They are in the forefront."
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