Once I heard a radio interview of NPR with Ahmadinejad which I found very smart and right-on.

The reporter asked him about the freedom of speech and freedom of information in Iran and of course Ahmadinejad said that in Iran people have free access to information and have freedom of speech.
Then reporter asked him how come satellite is illegal in Iran? He said it is not! He simply had to lie.

I think this is a great question that can be asked again! Satellite is still illegal in Iran and people are not supposed to watch it. It is a simple example for proving a country wants to control what people hear or how they form their opinion.

Or you could ask them why some websites are filtered:
BBC persian
Voice of America
even nytimes.com

I just wonder why all these "Reporters who do not have to fear imprisonment or exile for doing their jobs" by asking tough questions in pursuit of the "truth" never bother to ask tough questions to American leaders.

You need only think of the press conference given by Bush on the eve of the Iraq war for a good laugh at tough minded questioning.

Hey, and like you said Barb, they don't have to fear any adverse consequences, like the terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible consequences they would endure in Iran.

So why are you tough guys such chicken shits when it comes to asking tough questions to our leaders?

“International pressure led Iranian authorities to free American hiker Sarah Shourd and convinced Iran not to stone to death Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman convicted of adultery”. These statements are questionable. We do not yet know that Shourd and her companions were ‘hiking’; consider what the US authorities would make of three Iranian adults picked up without papers off the Florida coast who claimed to be fishing.

Shourd ’s release was an act of mercy from Ahmadinejad that the prosecutor at first resisted, so the President might more appropriately be thanked for his intervention.

The stoning sentence was passed by a Sharia judge because it is for the time being still on the books, but stoning is banned in Iran and the sentence was overturned by a higher judiciary. This sequence will be followed until the complex process of updating Iranian law is completed.

Iran certainly has its problems including its Green Tea Party but so do most countries and it is hard to imagine how it might be otherwise with Iran considering the incessant demonisation and vindictive sanctions imposed by the US/Israel double act. Ahmadinejad is the third most popular leader among Middle Eastern Arabs and 97% of Egyptians polled recently for the Brookings/Maryland Arab Public Opinion Poll think Iran perfectly entitled to its nuclear program.

Media freedom would be just fine if the media were accurate and responsible but most journalists are mere gossipmongers with doubtful and often irresponsible agendas as one may judge by the recent Koran burning business; that it should be thought necessary to suggest reporters might arm themselves with in-depth knowledge before interviewing the President of a country would seem to confirm this.

The opposition of some clerics likely derives from Ahmadinejad ‘s efforts to excise some of the less attractive elements of Sharia Law like stoning.

One might also ask oneself why someone so consistently and hideously misquoted should bother to answer contentious leading questions with truths that will only be twisted to create sensation and foster antagonistic attitudes.

As for holocaust denial, I imagine he expresses it to provoke Netanyahu and it works every time. Naughty, perhaps, but irresistible, particularly considering the nonsense Netanyahu utters about him and so much else.

Ahmadinejad sits on the throne of Xerxes, an ancient elevation not remarkable for any preoccupation with the selective niceties of human rights or the pernicious consequences of unbridled democracy, but providing its custodian with a perspective and consequent patience not available to the President of the US; a nation figuratively speaking scarcely post pubescent.

The Devil’s advocacy rests.

say what u want about ahmaidnejad but at least he's not illegaly invading other countries and is not responsible for a million dead iraqis. its funny how people want to bash him for the idiotic things he says, but blair is recieving a stupid award for "conflict resolution", WTF? what ahmadinejad does in his own country is their business. but bush and blair are parading around the world as some sort of champions for democracy and freedom. both bush and blair should be stoned to death

How do you expect reporters to ask questions from him when they really don't know what happens in Iran? for instance here is written Hamadi Nejad's daughter married Mashaei's son but it is exactly vice versa. i Mean Ahmadi's son to Mashaei's daughter. or a reader says Bahaee's are the biggest religious minority in Iran but if they had just read some extra information they would know that the biggest religious minority in Iran are Christians! and the Jews ( about 25 thousand) that are the biggest community of Jews in the Middle east after Israel itself and they are easily leaving side by side with us - the Muslims.
the misunderstanding comes from those who have no other sources on Iran except the Green's liar-web sites that just spread rumors and lies . that's why they never understand that Ahmadi Nejad is a president whom the people truly chose him and what he says about the west specially the US and Britain are mere facts. he just tries to put a mirror before them and make them face themselves and their lies in it. something that nobody in the world dared to do so except late Imam ( Ayatollah )Khomeini. ahmadi Nejad is just a school boy in the school of shia'ism . He tries to unearth the facts that have been buried for decades after WW2.
it's obvious that the West and especially the US don't like it and they tri to smear him by the so-called free Media! that are free of weaving any lie they want to justify attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan , Yemen ,.... and at the end of the road Iran!

Bahaee's are the biggest religious minority in Iran but if they had just read some extra information they would know that the biggest religious minority in Iran are Christians! and the Jews ( about 25 thousand) that are the biggest community of Jews in the Middle east after Israel itself and they are easily leaving side by side with us - the Muslims.
the misunderstanding comes from those who have no otherbecertube sources on Iran except the Green's liar-web sites that just spread rumors and lies . that's why they never gztlrunderstand that Ahmadi Nejad is a president whom the people truly chose him and what he says about the west specially the US and Britain are mere facts. he just tries to put a 7ramirror before them and make them face themselves and their lies in it. something that nobody in the world dared to do so except late Imam ( Ayatollah )Khomeini. ahmadi Nejad is just a school boy in the ucakbiletitcschool of shia'ism . He tries to unearth the facts that have been buried for decades after WW2.
it's obvious that the West and sinemaespecially the US don't like it and they tri to smear him by the so-called free Media! that are free 31cilerof weaving any lie they want to justify attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan , Yemen ,.... and at the end of the road Iran!