NDP leader calls for realese of Journalist in Iran

That's right everyone, "Jumping" Jack Layton our favorite mustachioed politician held a press conference in the home of Maziar Bahari a Canadian journalist arrested in Iran in the aftermath of the June 12th "election". It's good to see our politicians speak up considering that Reporters Without Borders announced the arrest on June 20th.

When I wrote about it on this blog on the June 21st, I really didn't expect our government to do ANYTHING because last time a Canadian was detained in Iran was back in October 2008 when the BlogFather was taken and I haven't heard about many efforts being made on Ottawa's part to do anything about it.

So congratulations to you Jack for doing the right thing... now if you could only get the Conservatives and the Prime Minister behind you in this effort, maybe it would actually get somewhere.

Muchacho Enfermo

Canadian Journalist "Arrested" in Iran

Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, a Concordia graduate who has dual citizenship Iran-Canada, was "arrested" today and is being held without charge.

He has been working for Newsweek magazine for the last 11 years and has been living and covering Iran for many years. He was arrested today while or after covering the ongoing protests in Tehran. In a statement Newsweek said that he is being "detained without charge by Iranian authorities and has not been heard from since."

Reporters Without Borders claims that 23 journalists have been arrested in Iran since the contested election. In the case of Mr Bahari however, his dual citizenship might slow or stop his release altogether, as we have seen in the past with the Iranian-Canadian Blogger Hossein Derakhshan (AKA the blogfather).

Please write to your MP in parliament to urge the Canadian government to pressure Tehran for his release.

(Source for quotes: the Montreal Gazette)

Muchacho Enfermo