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IDRC Photo: Nadine Robitaille

Hossein Derakshshan is an Iranian blogger and journalist, sometimes called the “blogfather” of Iran.

Since the mid-1990s, he has been an Internet activist advocating its use as a means for social and political reform in Iran. His step-by-step instructions on creating Web blogs in the Persian language inspired thousands of Internet-savvy youth in Iran to start their own blogs.

Hossein hopes that these blogs will help bring pressure for more democracy and freedom to his country at a time when hardliners are now clamping down on newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Hossein himself has been detained and interrogated, and was forced to sign a letter of apology for his blog writings before being allowed to leave Iran.

He now lives in London.

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