Omid Memarian

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Omid Memarian (in Persian: امید معماریان)is an Iranian journalist and blogger. He was awarded the Golden pen at the National Press Festival in Iran at 2001. He has been blogging since 2002, in English and Persian. He used to work with Hayat-e No (New Life), Yas-e-no (New Jasmin), Vaqaye-e Ettefaqiyeh (Occurring Events) and Sharq (or Shargh = meaning East) daily newspapers in Iran.

Omid was Editor in Chief of Volunteer Actors Quarterly which deals with civil society issues. He blog in Persian and English. He was detained in Iran from October 10, to December 2004. ^[1] On 10 October, journalist Omid Memarian was arrested on the orders of the Tehran Prosecutor's Office's Ninth Chamber. Memarian was detained for posting articles on several reformist newspapers, his blogs and online publications and was accused of "spreading propaganda against the regime, threatening national security, incitement to rebellion and insulting leading figures in the regime." But he had still not been charged. Five days later the authorities also searched Memarian's home and confiscated his personal notes and computer.

Shortly before his arrest, Memarian had tried to attend a conference on Iranian civil society in New York. He had obtained a US visa, but en route in Frankfurt, US authorities refused to allow him to board his flight, saying that he was on a No Fly List. They provided no other information. He was arrested a few days after his return to Tehran.

He is well known for his news analysis regular columns and blogs in English and Persian. Memarian works as a freelance writer for the IPS news agency (Inter Press Service) Rooz Online, and BBC Persian. He has had op-ed pieces published in The New York Times San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Opendemocracy.org and Contra Costa Times. ^[2] He received Human Rights Watch's highest honor in 2005 the Human Rights Defender Award for his courageous work as a human rights activist. Omid Memarian was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism from 2005-2006 and is currently a Rotary Peace Fellow at the Journalism School.^[3] ^[4]