Iranian women journalists receive Net Citizen award

Iranian online journalists of women’s rights blog we-change.org were awarded the Net Citizen award for promoting online freedom through their reporting on Iran’s post-election unrest in face of persistent government interference.

The new prize is awarded by internet giant Google and journalist’s rights group, Repoters Without Borders to defend freedom of expression online.

The site we-change.net was established three years ago along with the establishment of One Million Signatures Campaign to eliminate discriminatory laws and so far it has been hacked by Iranian authorities over twenty times.

Google and Reporters Without Borders issued a statement saying that the site “has become a point of reference for information on women’s rights in Iranian society,” and “Iranian cyber-feminists have created new spaces for expression."

Jean Francois Julliard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders said at the awarding ceremony which took place at Google’s Paris office yesterday that the internet has played a widespread role in the struggles for democracy in Iran and without the online activities of brave Iranian citizens, we would not have the necessary information to understand our world.

He maintained that following the disputed victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June which protesters claim was fraudulent, over half of the images regarding the protests were sent all across the world through the internet.

Parvin Ardalan, one of the members of the site accepted the prize on behalf of her organization saying: "The Iranian women's movement has always shown resistance... Now the movement is bringing its experience and methods of working democratically into cyberspace."

Google senior vice-president David Drummond said Iran and China were amongst the regimes that posed "the most systemic risk and the most immediate risk to individuals" by cracking down on internet dissent.

The Net Citizen prize was awarded on the eve of Reporters Without Borde’s “World Day Against Cyber Censorship” today when they publish a list of countries they accuse of “displaying a disturbing attitude toward the internet.”

Along with China and Vietnam, Iran holds one of the top spots on that list. However this year several unexpected countries have been added onto the list such as Australia South Korea, Turkey and Russia.

The senior manager of Google, David Drummond said there is an “alarming trend” of government interference in online freedom which is not limited to countries we generally regard as having poor human rights records.