Voices in Iran

This is heartbreaking.

I'm not at all surprised on how things have turned out during the election, I am saddened, but not surprised. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

A picture says a thousand words. Some of the links below contain graphic images.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_disputed_election.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fhashemi/sets/72157619758530748/
http://picasaweb.google.com/bahramks/RiotsInTehran#

Monday June 15, 2009. Man being beaten, allegedly by state para-military force known as Basiji

Other sources of Iran protest photos are:

1. The Mousavi photostream www.flickr.com/photos/mousavi1388

2. Bahramk's excellent collection of over 399 photos from the protests in Iran: picasaweb.google.com/bahramks/RiotsInTehran#

Rules when supporting the Iranian People on Twitter:

1. Change your name and location to Tehran. This will provide cover for the Tweeters in Tehran.

2. If you have proxy IP numbers to contribute, keep them private. DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09

3. Use only #iranelection or #gr88

4. Use your common sense to sniff a tweet for Iranian government misinformation - try and find corroboration before you retweet.

5. Never name a source. Simply relay the information from an Iranian source using F/Iran at the beginning.

Message to News Organizations:

I have received a number of requests to use these photographs from multiple news organizations.

These are not my photographs. They have been collected from Twitter and other social networks. They are being gathered together in the Flickr collection for the convenience of the press and others and to ensure that there is an additional depository for these images in the event that their original location is compromised by hostile action.

As they are not mine, I do not have the ability to authorize their use. However, one major news network has decided that;

"We recognize the risks people are taking to get the pictures out and intend to use as many of them as editorially appropriate. We will not currently require formal license agreements considering the situation."

I would invite your news organization to reach a similar decision and to use all photographs that do not contain a watermark, or annotation, indicating that they were taken by professionals.

The individuals that took these photos, risked their lives to do so and it is incongruous that having done so they would not wish these photographs to be used by the world media. In light of this I beg your news organization to use these photographs and to disseminate them as wide as possible. Constant press coverage by the international media is the only thing preventing a massacre in Iran. The re-publication of these photographs will help to save lives. There is a clear moral duty in this context. Be human.

-----

Also, the photo below was taken in San Fransisco, I only link it here because I find it funny that Saks is in the background. I think there are some parallels to be drawn between big business and dictatorships.