Iran’s parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the internet…

One of the things I find the most amusing about Iran is its tortured relationship with language, one which makes U.S. President Bush’s “Department of Naming Things the Opposite of What They Are”* seem almost reasonable. Here’s how the official news agency, ISNA, describes the “law.” It will “toughen punishment for harming mental security in society.” (Tzara was a journalist.)

Considering the nature of “debate” (not to mention “parliament”) in Iran, it seems unlikely that it will be “voted down.” So, look for the first publicly murdered bloggers to be coming to a news source near you in about a year.

Cyrus’s story will air today (July 4) on The World.

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*This doesn’t really exist.

Or does it?**

**No, it doesn’t.

Japanese police arrested two Greenpeace activists on Friday on suspicion of stealing about 50 pounds of whale meat that the environmentalists said had been illegally siphoned by whalers from government-backed hunts.

Sato claimed widespread collusion among fishing company, academics and others to overfish.

Here’s a translation of his last post prior to the arrest, via Greenpeace.

Is it helpful to include arrests like those of Fatah, McClellan, and Aljughaifi in the WIA survey?  I’d argue no.  While it is commendable to analyze the efforts of governments around the world to muzzle bloggers, it is the repression of free speech that is the concern.  By including the arrests of those who happen to be bloggers in their count, the WIA researchers diminish the impact of their report, because they blur the value of that which they mean to defend.

He may be right. Our feelings have always been that, short of arrests for criminal activities such as violence and assault (and child pornography, certainly), we’ll cover threats to bloggers and threatened bloggers and not restrict it to people who were arrested for their blogging. For one thing, it is very difficult sometimes to distinguish the “crimes” bloggers who’ve been arrested have been charged with. What a tyrannous government claims as its motivation and what its real motivations are are quite different.

View Text Table Summarizing Global Blogger Arrests, 2003-2008

View Color Graphic Summarizing Global Blogger Arrests, 2003-2008

WIA’s conclusion was grim.

After surveying our data, we predict that the number of blogger arrests will rise in 2008. The popularity of online blogs continues to grow and inspire more media coverage of arrest incidents. Countries are enforcing greater Internet regulation, which will only increase with the elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the United States this year. Assuming a pattern similar to Egypt’s occurs, the number of political blogger arrests has nowhere to go but up. With already four incidents in January and February, we expect the number of arrests in 2008 will exceed that of 2007.

Singabloodypore sent us a note informing us that another blogger, a former Singaporean and current US citizen, has been arrested. Unlike the last arrest, of (ick) Fragrant Prince, this one is not for some species of racism, but stems, I think, from the same tendency, to shut up ideas not given official imprimatur.

Channelnewsasia gives the man’s name as Gopalan Pallichadath Nair.

Police have arrested a former Singaporean for the offence of “threatening, abusing or insulting a public servant”.

In response to media queries, police confirmed that Gopalan Pallichadath Nair, who is now a US citizen, was arrested at Broadway Hotel along Serangoon Road on Saturday.

A warrant of arrest without bail was granted by the courts for the arrest.

Nair is alleged to have sent an email to the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General which contained statements amounting to the offence of insulting a public servant.

The statements were directed against Justice Belinda Ang, a Supreme Court judge. The statements were also posted on Nair’s blog.

Nair is presently in police custody. He will be charged in court on Monday.

I’m not specialist but it seems like you can barely speak in Singapore without risking offense to someone, and if you offend anyone, you’re going to jail. Touchy bunch.

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Steven @ Singabloodypore goes into the case in admirable detail.

I got 2300 messages from everywhere , i feel so happy everytime i am receiving a letter , i feel that people
didnt forget about me

Our Flood the Jail with Mail campaign was much more of a success than I anticipated, I confess.

Check out this post to find out how to write Kareem.

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Update: Full text of Kareem’s letter in English below. Arabic version also at FreeKareen.

I am living through some decent days here which I know will not last. I have several activists with me who were detained during the strike on the 6th of April in Egypt. They are people like me. They are educated, and staunch believers in certain values which they are fighting for.

Some of these people are out now, and the others are waiting to be released. Sometimes I wonder if the reason why they’re here in the first place is to make me more sad when they leave me alone in the dark.

This is the first time since I’ve been in prison that I meet people who are intellectually similar to me, but they will soon be released and I will be lonely again.

I wish I can get out of here. Every time I witness people being released from prison to go back to their homes, I wonder when it’s time for me to also leave. I never did anything worthy of this punishment. I’ve been here for so long, and throughout my detainment, I was never convinced that I ever committed a crime. Their punishment is not effective. This prison never changed my mind, and it never will.

I got 2,300 messages from all over the world. I feel ecstatic every time I receive a letter. I feel that people didn’t forget about me. Sometimes, the prisoners here mock me and try to hurt me by telling me that people forgot about my existence, but when I look at all of these letters that I have in my cell… I don’t care about what the prisoners are saying, because I have concrete evidence with me proving them wrong.

I just wish I could get out of here.

Kareem Amer
Borg el Arab prison, Section 22 Cell 1
Alexandria, Egypt

There have been Chinese-Malay riots in the past in Singapore and that seems to be the rationale for arresting this guy for a “thought crime.” But once you start arresting people for being tools, you better have a gigantic prison. In reality, of course, this is a tool for the maintenance of “order,” at all costs.

Tarek Baiassi, whom we’ve written about before, has finally been sentenced, by a Syrian “court” to three years in prison. According to the RSF, the legal-like glass for Tarek’s sentence included “publishing false news” and “weakening national sentiment,” whatever that is. The real reason for the sentence was his having posted an article on the shortcomings of the Syrian secret service on a forum.

Baiassi’s father was incarcerated by the Syrians as a political prisoner.

A petition for Baiassi’s release.