The Guardian newspaper reports today on the growth of a blogging culture among Iran's conservative Islamic clerics, and states that,

"Following the example of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ayatollahs, seminary students and theologians are receiving training in setting up their own weblogs." (Link)

Iran is said by many human rights groups to be the worlds biggest prison state for reporters and according to the association Reporters without Borders, 13 of the countries journalists and bloggers were jailed during 2005 alone. Threats, detention, summons and arrests of reporters who are critical of the regime remain commonplace, and many journalists are only able to remain out of prison by paying very high bail. (Link)