Two Bloggers to be executed in Iran for criticizing the government

Hmmn... let's check. Nope. Nothing up at Reason

by Eric Dondero

You'd think this would be a natural for an on-line magazine that promotes "Free Minds, Free Markets." But not a word about this story at Reason.com.

Similarly, not a single self-described "libertarian" news/commentary site is covering it: Nothing up at Cato.org, nothing at LewRockwell.com, ditto DailyPaul, nothing at Humble Libertarian, or The Agitator, or AntiWar.com.

From the Washington Examiner, "Iran arrests journalists, to execute bloggers" Jan. 26:

Iranian courts have sentenced two bloggers to death for "spreading corruption," and government security forces have arrested four other journalists, in the lead-up to the nation's March elections.

"In the past two weeks, security forces have reportedly arrested four journalists," the U.S. State Department said in a statement, "including Shahram Manouchehri, Sahamedin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Marzieh Rasouli, and Iranian courts confirmed death sentences for bloggers Saeed Malekpour and Vahid Asghari, both of whom were not accorded due process and now face imminent execution on charges of 'spreading corruption.'"

The State Department faulted Iran for trying "to extinguish all forms of free expression and limit its citizens’ access to information in the lead-up to March parliamentary elections."

Of course if this had been some Republicans criticizing the release of secret military documents all over the web, these same left-libertarian sites would be all up in arms. But to those on the leftside of the libertarian movement only the Big bad "U.S. Military industrial complex" presents a threat to our liberties. Islamists executing gays, women's rights advocates, cartoonists, journalists, bloggers, is just not newsworthy.

Photo h/t - libcom.org