By now the Iranian government has released all but one of the Iranian employees of the British Embassy in Teheran who had been detained for alleged interference in the recent elections.  We have had few details of this harassment because unfettered journalism was one of the first victims of the post-election crackdown.  For example, Newsweek magazine today commented on the detention of one of its own Iranian employees, Maziar Bahari, who was arrested on June 21 for allegedly having “promote[d] irresponsible reporting in Iran.”  The Iranian government allows the accused no access to lawyers.

Here we see, once again, the iron law of political repression:  when you crack down on dissent you must not only eliminate the political opposition but also the media’s ability to broadcast the news of what you are doing.  Despite Twitter, I Reports and text messaging, today the repression of dissent and journalism proceed apace in Iran, and all of us, in and outside the country, must piece together various sketchy reports and try to figure out what is happening and then what can and should be done.

Figuring out what to say is a part of the task.  In the West, including here in the United States, there has been a big debate about words.  The political right last week criticized Obama for not speaking out more forcefully, citing the example of how Reagan was quick to stand up for anti-Communist protesters in Poland in the early 1980s.  Some say Reagan’s rhetoric at that time helped Solidarnosc to eventually defeat the Communist regime.  Others defended Obama, noting that George H.W. Bush’s rhetorical encouragement of Iraqi Kurds in 1991 was followed by protests that Saddam Hussein ruthlessly crushed, moving the process backwards.  When outside powers comment from the sidelines, they must calculate how the repressive regimes and their repressed populations will react.  Obama knew, as he said at his press conference, that the U.S. government would be used as a scapegoat by Ahmedinejad’s crowd;  it is always convenient to blame the outside world for a country’s internal unrest.  And just like Newsweek, Obama issued more forceful statements when it became clear that the repression was continuing.

Truth is the first victim when political repression occurs.  Those who would try to find out the truth and disseminate it to the outside world are treated according to the same ruthless playbook.  One hopes for Iran’s sake that there are enough informal networks and social media to keep dreams of reform and freedom alive.  What the outside world can say now — and should do now — is more or less what is now being said and done.  The EU may withdraw its ambassadors from Teheran and an isolated, divided country will become even more so.  And the sad consequence of that is that the hardliners get the closed society they want.