Iranians Take Risks to Upload Their Dissent Online

In this photo taken Monday, June 15, 2009, an Iranian woman uses her mobile phone in front of...

In this photo taken Monday, June 15, 2009, an Iranian woman uses her mobile phone in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters of leading opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi who turned out to protest the result of the election at a mass rally in Azadi (Freedom) square in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

(AP)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

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The Iranian protesters sneak their cell phones onto the streets and hit record, frantically trying to evade being caught or beaten.

The shaky, grainy images are e-mailed to friends. Then they are uploaded to blogs, YouTube or social networking sites — offering the world some of the only firsthand glimpses of tensions following disputed presidential elections on June 12.

But the Internet window on Iran's upheaval is being increasingly blacked out by the information crackdown by authorities, who have restricted foreign media from the streets and blacked out many Web sites considered sympathetic to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and his claim that the election was stolen by fraud vote rigging.

It is a political cat-and-mouse game played out in the streets of a country Reporters Without Borders has labeled "the world's biggest media jail."

On Monday, only a few new videos that appeared to be days-old protests trickled onto the Web, along with clips of Sunday's protest outside a mosque in north Tehran. Other postings — including many set to music on sites such as YouTube — showed older photos of violence in Iran's streets

It's an apparent sign that Iranian authorities are increasingly choking off the ability of protesters to post messages and images.

Many Iranians who post messages on Twitter, or upload videos on YouTube, didn't want to be identified or speak with the media. One told The Associated Press in an e-mail he was afraid to e-mail further or talk on the phone, saying he was in a "very dangerous situation."

Despite the dangers and the clampdowns — the government's ban on reporting on the crisis in country, its shutdown of text messaging, blocking Web sites, the threats of jail and possibly death — the bloggers try to stay one step ahead.