Coverage of 22 Bahman

Hello again,

So yesterday was the thirty-first anniversary of the fall of Iranian monarchy and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The IR welcomed reporters to the official ceremonies held in Azadi Square in Tehran, but kept them fenced in and away from any other areas of the city. As you can see from the pictures from coverage by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal the event was heavily stocked by bussed-in government supporters. Ahmadinejad made it clear that the day was about Iran's unrestrained nuclear future. The government went to great lengths to break up any and all protests, as well as keep those opposition forces out of Azadi Sqaure.

The New Republic, among other sites (i.e. Andrew Sullivan @ The Atlantic Monthly, Kimber's Iranlog, and a blog by the Mehdi Saharkhiz, son of imprisoned Iranian journalist) was live-blogging the events here . Tehran Bureau, my go-to site, reported in its preview to the protests that "A complex scheme is to be implemented in which the routes to the northern and eastern sides of Azadi Square, from where protesters customarily emerge, will be blocked for several kilometers in each direction. People trying to make their way to the square via those routes will be diverted away from the eyes of the international press, who will be confined to designated areas within the square" (Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/02/overview-reading-22-bahman.html).

If you'd like to see some videos from the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran check out this collection, put together by TB. Seeing as the press was limited in its access, we once again learned the value of camera phones, twitter, and other tech, especially in the fight against tyranny and oppression.