Iran Roundup: Battles on the Information Front
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, June 23 2009
Let's take a look today at some of what's being written about and done around the intersection of technology and the the evolving events in Iran. (Past roundups are here, here, here, here, and here.)
- New York Times Iran correspondent Nazila Fathi pieces together what is known about Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year-old woman whose death was captured on video that then spread around the world in short order. Fathi notes one aspect of Soltan's death that is evident when you look at many of the photos and videos of the post-election protests in Iran: women are very often at the forefront of the resistance. An video companion to Fathi's piece, produced by Jigar Mehta, features Robert Mackey, who has been doing remarkable live blogging of the events in Iran on the Times' The Lede blog. (In case you're curious about how Mackey has been keeping his head above water with all the information flowing about Iran, the video reveals that one tool in his reporter toolbox is Twitterfall.)
- Via Mackey, the Translation and Interpretation Initiative for Iranian Protesters, or TIIIP, is, as described on the project's wiki, "an ad hoc initiative to produce free, publication-ready translations and high-quality interpretations of the written and spoken communication streaming out of Iran in the Farsi (Persian) language in the form of e-mails, YouTube videos, Facebook entries, press releases, etc."
- And the website Page F30 is offering advice on how to make use of Google Translate's new Farsi capability, by spelling out Persian keywords worth tracking.
- The Atlantic's Chris Good takes a look at how Internet filtering, surveillance, and blocking might be working in Iran -- and how the people of that rather tech-adept country are working to route about those restrictions. (via Joe Trippi) And the New York Times' Brian Stelter and Brad Stone report out how the web counteracts attempts at censorship.
- On the censorship front, David Isenberg calls into question yesterday's Wall Street Journal story that alleges that Nokia and Siemens had provided the Iranian government with the tools to engage in deep packet inspection of Internet traffic.
- And the New York Times' Mark Landler and Mark Mazzetti consider how the White House is dealing with the complicated information flow in and around Iran.
(Video above by 'Halbertis,' via YouTube's Citizen Tube's tracking of videos from Iran.)