Those supporting free speech for bloggers around the world come from a host of different backgrounds, often focus on different elements of the issue and do so in different ways. However, we are all united by a set of core beliefs. We are all members of the March 18 Movement and are powered by its principals. OR318 is the platform for uniting members of the movement and for communicating those beliefs to the public, politicians and press.
First among the principals of the March 18 Movement is a belief in the inviolacy of life. No blogger should be killed, neither by execution nor neglect, regardless of what the blogger has written. Secondly, we believe in free speech as a necessity for building and maintaining functional societies. We believe bloggers and non-specialist practitioners of other social media should be accorded the respect and support that activists, opposition politicians and journalists get from the world at large.
March 18, 2009 is the day the first blogger, Omid Reza Mirsayafi, died in prison. Each March 18 from now on shall stand as a day of memorial to Omid and to all the innocents he represents.