Iran's President Launches Blog

August 15th, 2006 1:07 PM

Although he's already proven he has no trouble getting his message out to the American media, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is launching his own blog. Reports the BBC:

The launch of www.ahmadinejad.ir was reported on state TV, which urged users to send in messages to the president.

Mr Ahmadinejad's first posting, entitled autobiography, tells of his childhood, Iran's Islamic revolution, and the country's war with Iraq.

The blog includes a poll asking if users think the US and Israel are trying to trigger a new world war. [...]

In a country where the media is strictly controlled, the internet has become the main forum for dissident voices.

But in its bid to crack down on anti-government bloggers, the government uses one of the most sophisticated internet censorship systems in the world.

Such restrictions will not pose a problem for the president. However, at the end of his first posting - which runs to more than 2,000 words in English - he promises to try to keep things "shorter and simpler" in future.

"With hope in God, I intend to wholeheartedly complete my talk in future with allotted 15 minutes," he writes.

Nose bleed

Mr Ahmadinejad's first entry on his blog, which is available in Persian, Arabic, English and French and includes an RSS feed to get future new entries to readers, is dated Friday.

Which liberal blogs will run his RSS feed?

UPDATE 14:11. Surely some of the Daily Kos readers, 47% of whom think Mike Wallace was too hard on
Ahmadinejad will be heading over to their new hero's home on the web.