“By blocking websites and bringing Internet access to a crawl, Iranian authorities are saying their own citizens don’t deserve information about the election,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator. “What kind of an election is it when journalists are tossed into prison and voters are denied access to the news?”

Committee to Protect Journalists.  “In Iran, news coverage stifled amid election controversy.” May 21, 2013.

If it is as predictable as rain, is it news?

On Tuesday, that system tightened the screen once more, disqualifying the only two prominent candidates who dared to differ with the Supreme Leader. When Iranians go to the polls on June 14 to choose a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the ballot will run from Khamenei’s former policy director to the man who married his daughter.

http://world.time.com/2013/05/22/irans-supreme-leader-tightens-grip-after-disqualifying-two-presidential-candidates/#ixzz2U94RSXSK

At least the news gets out, so perhaps the regime will prove an open “despotocracy” however narrowed its existing and potential politics.

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