Diary: Suppression of Press Freedom as Ahmadinejad is Declared Winner

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Supporters of the main election challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with police and set up barricades of burning tires Saturday as authorities declared the hard-line president was re-elected in a landslide. Opponents responded with the most serious unrest in the capital in a decade and charges that the result was the work of a "dictatorship." Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, closed the door on any chance he could use his limitless powers to intervene in the disputes from Friday's election. In a message on state TV, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a "divine assessment."

Both of Ahmadinejad's challengers in the election, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, have urged supporters to not accept the results.

PRESS TV out of Iran has several stories posted on the results.

The results being reported are as follows:

The final results of Iran's closely-contested 10th presidential election indicate that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won a landslide victory.

"Of 39,165,191 votes counted (85 percent), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 24,527,516 (62.63 percent)," Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli told reporters on Saturday.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi came in second with 13,216,411 votes (33.75 percent), he added.

The two were followed by Mohsen Rezaei with 678,240 votes (1.73 percent) and Mehdi Karroubi with 333,635 votes (0.85 percent), the minister said.

He put the void ballots at 409,389 (1.04 percent).

Over 46 million Iranians aged 18 and older were eligible to vote in Friday's presidential election.

The unrest comes as Ahmadinejad's challenger in the eleciton, Mousavi, describes the "officially declared results of yesterday's presidential vote a 'sleight of hand' by those in charge of the election."

FOX News reports that "U.S. officials are casting doubt over the results of Iran's election, in which the government declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner Saturday."

This is because "U.S. analysts find it "not credible" that challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi would have lost the balloting in his hometown or that a third candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, would have received less than 1 percent of the total vote."

The group, Reporters Without Borders, has posted a couple stories worthy of attention.

The group has posted a story with a headline that reads, "Massive censorship accompanies Ahmadinejad victory":

“Amid mounting allegations of massive fraud, the government is implementing propaganda and censorship measures to legitimise Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claim to a first-round victory,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It is vital that Iranian and foreign journalists present in Iran should be free to investigate the reports of fraud throughout the country. The presidential election’s credibility depends on this.”

The story describes how websites detailing the results of the election possibly from the opposition's point of view have been blocked or shut down.

Also, suppression of press and intimidation of journalists is detailed:

Two women journalists working at the Mousavi campaign headquarters were physically attacked yesterday.
The state-owned media lost no time in announcing that President Ahmadinejad had won his reelection bid. “By obtaining the majority of votes in this 10th presidential election, Dr. Ahmadinejad has been victorious,” the government news agency Irna reported.

Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazavi ordered pro-opposition newspapers on the evening of 11 June forbidding them to lead with stories announcing their candidate’s victory. Kalameh Sabaz, a newspaper owned by Mousavi, was threatened with having its printing press confiscated and had to change its front-page story proclaiming that Mousavi had won.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s website has been very hard to access within Iran and the women’s rights website We Change (http://www.we-change.org/) has been blocked for the 20th time.

To prevent the opposition from collecting elections results, the SMS (mobile phone messaging) system has been widely disrupted and opposition supporters have been denied access to many polling stations. A representative of Iran’s biggest communications company said it was trying to establish the “cause” of the interruption to the SMS service.

...some of the foreign journalists who are in Iran to cover the elections have been notified by the authorities that their press visas will not be renewed.

This story from Reporters Without Borders on the state of press freedom in Iran comes just after a story titled, "No independent coverage of presidential election campaign in Iranian media."

Clashes between police and supporters and news that information on the election is being suppressed will no doubt test the Obama Administration.

It will test those in America and the media that were excited about the possiblity of Ahmadinejad being defeated.

I sincerely hope and believe Obama will keep America from meddling in the affairs of Iran too much. But, I am weary about whether those in government will have the fortitude to stand up to Israel as it reacts hysterically to the results.

As Jerusalem Post reports,

"The Iranian election results are a slap in the face of those who believed Iran was built for real dialogue with the free world and would halt its nuclear program," Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said.
"Ahmadinejad's victory sends a clear message to the world that there is wide support for the current policy, and it will continue unchanged. The United States and the free world must reevaluate the policy on Teheran's nuclear ambitions...

Israel will urge the U.S. to aggressive react to the Iranian results and that is something, I believe, we cannot afford to do and more importantly, should not do.