Revolt, Revolution in Iran Over Election Fraud

Green Protestors Clash with Basij, Hizbullah on Tehran Streets

Jun 16, 2009

Citizen journalism and social networking site Twitter shows historic significance in delivering news, photographs, and video of developing revolt against Islamic regime.

Going into the recent Iranian national election on June 12th 2009, reformist leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former Prime Minister of Iran, was a large favourite to win over opponent and current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sweeping crowds of supporters held rallies for Mousavi, dwarfing similar events held by the incumbent, leading the great majority of the population feeling that a landslide victory for the reformist movement was in the cards, leading to a more progressive, free Iran.

Alleged Vote Rigging, Election Fraud

As the vote was tallied 2 hours following the closure of the polls, shock ran through the Iranian nation with the posting of the results; according to the Government, Ahmadinejad had crushed Mousavi – garnering 62% of the vote as opposed to 34% for the reformist candidate.

Given the large lead that Mousavi had garnered according to most polls as well as the general sentiment amongst the Iranian population that Mousavi was headed to win a landslide victory himself, suspicions of vote rigging and electoral fraud on the part of Ahmadinejad and the Islamic republic became nigh obvious.

Immediately following the release of these numbers, the public began to revolt, with millions of protesters taking to the streets, demanding freedom and that their voice be heard. Protests continued throughout day and night, with Iranians screaming from the rooftops and in the streets – demanding, initially, a new election, and now demanding complete removal of Ahmadinejad's regime.

Speculation regarding the true results has been varied; many sources reporting 19 million votes for Mousavi versus 6 million for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, most sources agreeing that the ballots were burned immediately after having reported them.

Death Toll, Tehran University Massacre

Initially reported by Twitter at #IranElection by University of Tehran students, the Basij - a paramilitary force loyal to the Islamic republic – burst into dormitories at the University of Tehran and opened fire, shooting shotgun blasts through doors and gunning down unarmed students.

Several photographs uploaded to Flikr and Twitter showed the corpses of murdered protestors in graphic detail, though most of those photographs have now been either removed or moved to private channels.

The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the protest in Freedom Square, where hundreds of thousands of Mousavi supporters had gathered to protest Ahmadinejad's rule, shows yet more blood and violence in a photograph where a dead man is shown hanging limp and bloodied – carried away by his fellows who shouted, "I will kill the one who killed my brother."

The political instability is deepening further today as the protest movement swells even larger, the international community begins to get involved, and even one of the grand ayatollah's issuing a direct order for his supporters not to cooperate with Ahmadinejad's government.

Currently, the estimated death toll amongst the protesters stands at ~40, with many unarmed civilians being fired upon by either Basij or Ansar forces in the streets for daring to protest the theocratic Islamic Republic. Two Basij are believed to be dead according to video footage posted on Liveleak and Youtube showing the storming of a Basij compound by protestors.

The Failure of the Mainstream Media: CNN, Fox, MSNBC

While certain media outlets have been relatively acute in their coverage of the ongoing revolt in Iran, most American news outlets have utterly failed in providing accurate or even responsible coverage of the ongoing crisis. CNN was running low priority pieces, including interviews with Melissa Etheridge, while millions of protesters took to the streets and gunmen mowed down students within their university dormitories. Referring to the twitter news feeds as "annoying", CNN and other media outlets in America largely ignored this news story until recently.

In fact, Twitter and other internet news sources have provided an outlet for photographs, video, and other media to be released by citizens who are directly involved in the Iranian revolt and protests – shedding a light on the story that traditional media has proven unable to provide.

While this certainly marks a turning point in the delivery of international news, most of all the rising importance of social networking sites as a force for political change and an international news vehicle rather than simply a place to upload inane updates, it also spells out a rather damning future for traditional news media in America, who have by and large failed in their duty to provide up to the minute coverage of events, such as these, that are relevant and extremely important in their social, historical, and political scope.

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