THE ONLINE JOURNALISM REVIEW has an article about imprisoned Iranian blogger Sina Motallebi who credits weblog-generated pressure for his release from jail:

“The community of bloggers came together and helped me, and spread the news around the Web, and became united,” he told me by phone from Holland, where he lives with his wife — who is also a journalist — and 15-month-old son. “There was a petition with more than 4,000 signatures on one site. And there was coverage of the story in the foreign media. And there was pressure from other countries that were concerned with human rights. I think they found the cost of arresting me more than they thought before.” . . .

They didn’t expect the pressure from Webloggers and foreign media in my case. They think I’m an individual [freelance] journalist and not affiliated with any political party, I’m not an insider. So they think that when they arrested me, there wouldn’t be strong pressure to release me.

But the community of bloggers came together and helped me, and spread the news around the Web, and became united.

Let’s hear it for blogosphere solidarity!