Rights group fears arrest of Iran “student blogger”

Iran Focus: London, May 31 – The international media freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday that it was “very worried” about the fate of an Iranian student web-logger who disappeared on Friday. Iran Focus

London, May 31 – The international media freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Wednesday that it was “very worried” about the fate of an Iranian student web-logger who disappeared on Friday.

Abed Tavancheh, a blogger and student at Tehran’s Amir Kabir polytechnic university, may have been arrested after posting photos and reports about the demonstrations taking place at his university for the past few weeks, the press freedoms organisation said in a statement.

“Tavancheh is a courageous blogger who may well have fallen prey to the government’s crackdown on the student pro-democracy movement”, it said, adding, “His work nonetheless shows that Iranian civil society is dynamic and is resisting government censorship and authoritarianism.”

Reporters Without Borders said that Tavancheh had been out of contact with his family and friends since May 26 and could not be reached on his mobile phone. He had participated in the rioting between pro-democracy youths and the government-controlled Bassij student militias that recently broke out on campus, it said.

Two other bloggers Arash Sigarchi and Mojtaba Saminejad, are currently in prison in Iran, the statement added.