Opinion: In today’s pages: Iran. And Twitter.
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In Thursday’s editorial pages, the Times focuses on the continuing fallout from this week’s controversial election in Iran.
The editorial board comes down hard on the Islamic republic, dismissing its absurd allegations that the United States is behind the current unrest, and blasting the Iranian government for its efforts to squelch coverage.
While it’s true that the U.S. may have urged Twitter to keep its global network functioning, or opened its Voice of America site to video and messages from Iran, those were efforts at the margin. The real Iranian fight is internal. Until now, elections in Iran have given legitimacy to the religious government, but this time the vote is widely believed to have been stolen, and that has divided the country’s ruling elite along with its citizens. Today’s conflict is between factions in the religious elite.
On the Op-Ed page, Judith Lewis gives a shout-out to a sometimes intriguing, often annoying medium that did allow some information to get out: Twitter.
It’s important not to get carried away here. There is no revolution being Twitterized, as some have reported, only a possible desire for one. There is certainly no direct line from Twitter to democracy. But Twitter is, by its very nature and architecture, destined to at least democratize information: Google and Yahoo executives can help Chinese authorities censor and rout out opponents with only minor public relations damage. But if Twitter betrays its base of millions, it ceases to exist.
See Lewis’ previous op-eds for the Times here.
Also, writing from Iran, UC San Diego professor Babak Rahimi -- who has also studied the role of new media on Iranian politics -- compares this revolution to the one in 1979, which overthrew democracy and established the Islamic republic. This one, he says, is different:
This time, the protesters seek a more democratic state, transparent in structure and accountable only to its citizens.
But we’re not only about Iran; we’re also thinking about the Uighurs. The editorial board looks at the resettlement of Guantanamo detainees and argues that the best way to get recalcitrant Europeans to open up their countries to Uighers and others who can’t be returned to their homes is for the U.S. to set the example:
Obama seemed to make such a commitment in a speech last month in which he reminded nervous members of Congress that hundreds of convicted terrorists are already held in ‘supermax’ prisons from which no one has escaped. The president mustn’t waver from that position.
The board also calls for an increase in Community College fees, and columnist Meghan Daum tries to get Barack Obama to light up.