In the Land of Hidden Imam

Some inside news about the citadel of Islamic "anti-imperialism".

Mr. Ganji, who recently emerged from six years in jail, expressed amazement that American institutions like the Council on Foreign Relations and "60 Minutes" on CBS News let Holocaust denial completely overshadow the government's repression.

During a 90-minute September meeting with council members in New York, for example, participants said they could only recall a single question put to Mr. Ahmadinejad about limited elections and shuttering the opposition press.

He was not pressed on rising unemployment, nor on the violent suppression of striking bus drivers protesting low wages, nor on arresting bloggers and confiscating satellite dishes to stifle debate, nor about censoring classical literature. Nobody asked about rioting by beleaguered Iranian earthquake survivors who resented giving money to Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon to rebuild houses destroyed by Israel. Mr. Ahmadinejad could have written the questions himself, the Iranian analysts argued.


And a glimpse into "freedom of speech" in "Islamic Republic":


Every delegate I interviewed congratulated Iran on its commitment to freedom of speech which they said was absent in the West where their comrades were in jail for denying the Holocaust.

They all paid tribute to their new hero, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. I asked them if they knew about the journalists and students who have been jailed in Iran for pushing the limits of freedom of speech in this country.

They were vague - happy to whitewash Iran without knowing the facts. As a journalist living and working in Iran I found it particularly galling to be told that I had freedom of speech by these people.

Eventually I found one of the movers and shakers behind the conference - a friend of President Ahmedinejad and asked him why there was freedom of speech to deny the Holocaust but not to criticise the Iranian government.

He told me there was complete freedom but the Western media was in the pocket of the Zionists and sent spies to undermine Iran's national security.

Presumably he meant all the students, bloggers, journalists and human rights lawyers who've been jailed here are Zionist spies.

Then he went on to say that the very presence of a BBC correspondent in Iran proved there was freedom of speech. Another twisted logic.

But when all the delegates were taken to see President Ahmedinejad for a mutual admiration session, the BBC, unlike other foreign media, was excluded from covering it. So much for Iranian freedom of speech.