Iran government hosts its own blogging competition

A new pro-government Iranian blogging competition called The Face of '89, in reference to the Persian calendar year 1389, just ended on March 20.

The rules of the competition stated that blogs that are blocked within the country - typically those that criticize the Iranian government - are not eligible to participate, Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle said in a report.

The pro-government blogosphere has proved to be active and important not only in criticizing the opposition, but also in criticizing conservatives whenever they are in disagreement with the Supreme Leader, Sanam Dolatshahi, who now works for BBC Persian and writes from the United Kingdom under the name Khorshid Khanoom (Lady Sun) was quoted as saying in an email to Deutsche Welle.

DW's competition [does not represent] the conservative pro-government blogosphere, so it is not surprising to see [that Iranian government supporters] have established a competition of their own, she added.

The winner of the competition, which was announced on March 20, was Omid Hosseini, a well-known pro-government blogger, who supports the conservative president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the report said.

Post 2009 elections Iranian government authorities have understood the effect of blogs and have been co-opting many of the online tools that they themselves abhor.