I am very eager to know Who has introduced Miss Delbar who totally has 67 posts in her weblog Khaneye Delbar (Delbar’s Home) which has not been updated since 14 April 2009 that is six months ago, as the representative of Iranian Bloggers. Of course I did not have the honor of knowing her while I was a journalist in Iran. I guess we might have some common friends but as a blogger who is writing for eight years, I have been very unlucky that I had not seen her weblog. She also has another weblog with the name of ”Tourist” which has 11 posts which seems that she has copied some of her printed writings about tourism and traveling in Iran and according to this definition it is not considered a weblog.
In my opinion a blogger has a definition for himself or herself. A blogger is a person who is first of all a blogger and in the virtual space has a fame because of his or her activities. He or she should try to gain popularity and some readers. Besides that he or she can also be a journalist and any other type of famous individual. This does not make sense that a person has previously been or is already a famous person, actor or actress and a journalist and then establishes his or her weblog. Anyway if we want to probe Khaneye Delbar through existing statistics, we can find out something about its effectiveness in both virtual and real spaces. Here is a screenshot of the counter software of her weblog.
It is written here:
This weblog has been visited 0 times a day in average and the maximum number of visit during the past 24 days has been made on 17th of October.
According to the website of Reuters:
Established in 1997 in honor of the late Mohamed Amin, a legendary Reuters African cameraman killed in an airline hijacking, the annual award typically honors individuals who work behind the scenes. It is sponsored by Thomson Reuters.
Maybe Miss Delbar deserves to get the prize as a journalist but a blogger’s award should be granted to bloggers most whom had to leave Iran secretly due to covering the news of the recent election. Or it can be granted to journalist such as Hanif Mazrouei who is living in Iran secretly and with a lot of difficulties and spreads news online. It is written in this news:
Iranian journalist Delbar Tavakoli, who fled the country after losing her job, received Friday the 2009 Mohamed Amin Award on behalf of the bloggers “for their commitment, bravery and dedication under harrowing conditions and extraordinary pressure while covering the presidential election.”
I would like to ask Miss Delbar who has won this prize as a blogger to publicly announce her activities (which show her bravery, commitment and altruism in those difficult situations) at least in her weblog. Maybe she has had a weblog under a nickname and she has really done such activities. It is essential for her to issue some written evidence to inform the online public.
Meanwhile as a blogger who became a journalist later this sentence of her is a question for me:
I dedicate this prize to the Iranian journalists who worked hard to let the world know what is happening in Iran. It is very hard to work as a journalist in Iran… The main reason for this is censorship.
I do not deny the hard work of journalists and colleagues including Miss Tavakoli and of course I know how they have endangered their lives. But how is it possible for Reuters to grant the prize specified for Iranian bloggers to Iranian journalists?
P.S: In an interview with BBC Persian TV Miss Tavakoli said that when they called her she had told them that she had not been an outstanding blogger and she did not know that she had been nominated for the prize. She said that she had won the prize for being a link to a person who had been killed in the recent incidents and she had broken the news to international media and as the granters said she had been granted the award for that reason. (This is a summary of what she said) [Persian Version]
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Tags: award, blogger, citizen journalism, Delbar Tavakoli, election, iran, journalist, reuters