Look who’s blogging

Last week Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became the latest alumni of the blogging world. It sure is a world first for a political leader.

And he is definitely making good progress with his postings. Perhaps due to his controversial nature, his blog is fast drawing millions of viewers. A quick check today found that there were plenty of positive feedbacks in his blog – some even asking him to use a bigger font!

Technorati, the San Francisco-based blog search engine, had ranked it as the 3,722nd most-popular blog among the estimated 50 million in cyberspace.

So why is he blogging and who is his targeted audience?

According to Newsweek, Mr President is trying to woo the international audience with the multi-lingual blog – it is published in Farsi and available in Arabic and English, with a French translation on its way.

The magazine clearly feels the blog is a PR exercise by stating that:

“…with the approach of the Aug 31 deadline for the possible imposition of sanctions against Tehran if the mullahs don’t abandon their uranium-enrichment plans, it’s hardly a surprise that Ahmadinejad wants a PR campaign to muster global sympathy.”

Others add that Ahmadinejad is also trying to attract the Iranian youngsters through this cyber media.

So will he be successful on both counts – to garner the international support as well as to endear him to the youths?

Whatever it is, Iranian bloggers are happy with this latest development as it means that the authorities will be less likely to shut down providers’ blog servers and be more open about freedom of expression in the internet.