Lonewolf wrote:Still it's an insult to the government
From a western society point of view, they are rather heavy handed in their approaches with the world.
In addition to my 'I want to nuke Israel' comment:
It is seen that barring foreign reporters from your country gives a sense that you're hiding something. I don't know how much control the Iranian government has over their media, but barring access to foreign reporters also prevents the populace from learning about 'the truth' when the media is 100% government controlled and is essentially a propaganda machine. It says in the second link that foreign media have been heavily restricted in what they have access to in the country.
While taking down the cell phone and social media access is a viable tactic when dealing with social unrest, you have to look at the situation. There were calls to take down Facebook etc during the English riots in August due to the potential for those looking to riot to organise such riots. In the end, the social network was kept up, and those who tried to incite riots have been punished, the maximum I heard was 4 years in prison. It may seem like a lot, but in the UK, almost no-one serves a full sentence, and to compare to what had already transpired (houses set ablaze without a care for residents, 3 people killed while protecting their property from looters) it seems more reasonable. Anyway...the riots in Iran have been caused by claims that the government is heavily corrupt and rigged the election. While circumstantial, when the main presidential candidate has been arrested while he was campaigning against the alleged rigging, with media access restricted and cell phones and social media cut off, it all looks rather suspect.
If Ahmadinejad wanted to prove the election was not rigged, he would hold another election. I'd imagine the way people would vote would be little different to how they voted the last time so the result should be the same. That, and if claims of a rigged election leads to civil unrest and riots, it tends to point to that many people do not believe the outcome of the election was valid.
It's also been experience that mixing religion with government doesn't tend to end very well.
23 year old guy from the UK.
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