You Can't Just Write Anything You Like about Iran

“Liberal-minded newspapers critical of the government have been closed and journalists jailed for misdemeanors ranging from printing ‘lies’ to insulting Islamic mores. Criticism is not welcomed and is being met with decreasing tolerance.” Come on, guess what country this is. You just can't write that about Iran. Because it's true.

It's a quote from The Guardian, from and article wrote by Robert Tait, the only reporter the newspaper had in Iran. Of course, the Guardian doen't have a reporter in Iran now. Tait was "sent" back home. I found the i nfo browsing around on the INternational Journalism Network website, http://www.ijnet.org/.

It seems the Ministry of Guidance and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran has warned foreign reporters not to write stories that are unacceptable under Iran’s new Press law. And "unacceptable" could just mean anything.

Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, seems to be a avery bad girl too. She mocked a newspaper in Tehran. “Kayhan is not very good at fabrications.” And ever since she sad it they've been picking on her.

I remember something H., a friend of mine in Iran, told me once. He was really upset. He's a teacher and a girl asked him during a class what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad studied. He answered that the PhD must be fake. Three days later a few guys came and warned him to keep his mouth shut. Of course I told him he's suicidal. People suddenly disapear sometimes. We used to have that in Romania before 1989, and Romania was a dictatorship before 1989.

And he told me the story about the professional media in Iran.

Ahmadinejad went for a visit in the towm H. is living in. Nobody went. There were like a few people, so they forced the school children to go and meet the president. (This again is something very familiar to me from the old days before 1989). And then there were the reports on the national network. Lots of people meeting the president in X town. And the news on the local TV. People met the president in town X. (the footage showed very few people). The explanation was simple, H told me. The local TV did not have the technical means to put more people in the footage. Geez! They should come to Romania and learn how to do it with no means from the guzs who worked in the Romanian National TV before December 1989.

No Tic Tac for Putin

Well, this is how Ukraine and Russia friendly share the Tic Tac mints. This is proof Cristian Totestean is a genius with youtube.

Cars and Women in Lebanon

Omar Hayssam, a fugitive businessman of Syrian origin accused of faming the kidnap of three Romanian journalists, told Romanian prosecutor Ciprian Nastasiu in a wired telephone conversation that he can meet him in Lebanon whenever he wants. Moreover, he added that the prosecutor can enjoy a nice holiday in Lebanon with expensive cars and women. Hayssam confessed that he left Romania, while on a leave from the hospital where he wastreated of cancer, with a fake passport. According to conversation transcripts included in Hayssam's file, Nastasiu tried several times to find out where the Syrian businessman is hiding. Finally, on September 6 the two established a meeting point but Omar Hayssam changed his mind, saying that he preferred to meet him in Lebanon if he wished to join him there. Hayssam told Nastasiu that he would suffer a surgical intervention at the American University in Lebanon as the illness he was accusing while in a Romanian jail apparently got worse. Omar Hayssam is accused and convicted of terrorism for faming the kidnap of three Romanian journalists in 2005 in Iraq. He was convicted to 20 years in prison in absence.

Stupid Statements

It started from this. A small interview with Mohammed ElBaradei the chief of the Intertanional Agency for Atomic Energy in Al Hayat. What are the odds of El Baradei speaking of Romania in an interview for Al Hayat? Come on, guess. Going once, going twice...Oh well i should given you a hint. Ya, the thing that links us all, japanese, pakistani, russian, french, british, american whatever. No? Not yet? Ok ok. I just have to tell you. It's mighty AL QAIDA. I bet you didn't see that coming, did you?
Well, MR. ElBaradei seems to think that Al Qaida is panning a nuclear attack! Ya, a nuclear attack in London, Cairo or whatever big city in this world. What does that have to do with Romania? Well, you wouldn't think of it in a million years. The nuclear items might just come from Romania. opr Ucraine, or any other former Soviet country. This is where things got out of control. Somebody translated the interview into Italian, and somebody else found the Italian version of the story and translated it into Romanian. Hehe, dear Romanian media. Of course we had to cover that! I got messages from like 5 people around the newsroom. We, Romanians, are so obssessed with what other people write about us! We couldn't miss something as fun and exotic as NUCLEAR, could we?
We broadcast the story on the 6pm o'clock news on Antena3. By 8pm, the Romanian Information Service had reacted. We have no information of any Al Qaida trying to buy nuclear stuff from Romania, they said. Then there was the guy from the National Commission for the Suveillace blah blah blah who started hurassing the evening editor, asking her for sources and stuff, like he couldn't just open the damn google and find the newsstory himself.
On the other hand, byond the hysterical people in Romania reacting to stupid statemens, there was an older news story in the european mainstream media like a year and a half ago. I remember cause i covered it. Some journalist believed that the former Romanian nuclear facilities were not properly guarded. That story probably made it to the ElBaradaei press file, and into his memory. Damn globalization.

Bill Clinton says he can't make Hillary

Well, America is not ready for a woman president. It seems like neither her husband is. Hehe.

Happy New Year! The Chaos is Back!

This morning I woke up with a view I haven't seen for a long time. Bucharest looks just like a village seen from my window. hehe, wonderful to look at, but try going through all the snow. Chaos! The cars barely move, buses became utopias and the trams and metro heh! you'd not be able to move a toe.