Iranian of the Day

Interesting Times: The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers today bestowed on Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeid-Abadi its most prestigious award, the Golden Pen of Freedom. Zeid-Abadi, one of the most prominent journalists arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 disputed elections in Iran, has shown extraordinary courage in the face of impossible odds and under extremely cruel circumstances. "Zeid-Abadi, an academic and political commentator as well as a journalist, the WAN news release says, is known for an open letter he wrote from prison in 2000 protesting the judiciary's treatment of imprisoned journalists. The letter was widely distributed despite attempts by the authorities to suppress its publication." The sentence he was handed —six years in prison, five years of internal exile and a lifetime writing ban— speaks volumes of the ignorance and cruelty of his judges and of a regime that has become the world's worst jailer of press freedom >>>