Two Iranian bloggers, Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, have been jailed in Iran for the heinous crime of expressing opposition to the country's theocratic regime.
According to Reuters, Sigarchi, 28, was yesterday convicted by a closed-door "Revolutionary Court" in the Caspian province of Gilan in northern Iran and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Yesterday, the Committee to Protect Bloggers asked all those with blogs to dedicate their sites to the "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day".
Those of us fortunate to live in tolerant societies might want to think for a moment about the reality of living under a regime that rejects the right of free expression and incarcerates those who dare speak their minds.
At the same time, as the BBC pointed out:
The question of bloggers and what rights they have to say what they want on their sites is a thorny one and has received much press attention recently.
High profile cases in which employees have been sacked for what they have said on their personal, and often anonymous blogs, have highlighted the muddy situation that the blogsphere is currently in.