Online Journalism News

Border guard blocks blogger

Blogging legend Hossein Derakhshan has been barred from the US for six months. His only home is hoder.com, he wrote on his blog today.

He had been staying in New York, went back to Toronto for a night and was Googled at the border when he tried to return.

He reports a gleeful border guard pouring over his detailed, pristine blog and questioning everything from why he went back to Iran to why he separated from his wife.

Jeff Jarvis has got the ball rolling - he is planning a testimonial for Hossein stating how he is "advancing the causes of freedom and democracy in Iran and elsewhere". He is not kidding either.

If you are new to the world of Hoder, this guy is a one-man whirlwind of ideas and involvement and action. He has done a huge amount to span the language gap between the English-language blogosphere and the online pro-democracy movement in his native Iran. And he really deserves credit for that.

As Jeff says, his work with the Global Voices site, which is based at Harvard Law School, must surely help him with decent advice on immigration law.

Comments? Email me.

More news from journalism.co.uk:
The unstoppable Hoder: A life transformed by blogging
Acclaim for defenders of free expression
Global bloggers fast in Iran protest

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