Iran: Remembering Omid Reza Mir Sayafi and March 18th · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

OR318 logo
A few months after the death of blogger and journalist Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, who died in an Iranian prison after allegedly insulting religious leaders, a memorial and activism site called March18.org has been set up to remember him and to hopefully keep this story from repeating itself. Following, the first video created for the March18 movement (OR318), with the motto: Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last.
With the recent events of political unrest in Iran, following the last elections, this message is as important as ever. Taking into consideration that it is through blogger and social media users that information on what is happening in Iran has been relayed to international media outlets, it is only fair to protect them from incarceration, disappearance and possibly death. Global Voices’ Hamid Tehrani informed us last week of new cases of Iranian bloggers’ arrests.
From the March18.org site:
The irony is that, as more members of both the public and the media praise the ability of bloggers to inform, the more these de facto journalists around the globe become victims in fact. The March 18 Movement aims not only to make sure that Omid Reza is remembered, but also that other persecuted bloggers around the world do not disappear into interrogation rooms and prison cells. The March 18 Movement would like to become a voice for bloggers everywhere who are in risk of being crushed under the heavy machinery of repression.