There are many heroes in the blogosphere, and you may have your favorite.

For my money I'll take Hossein Derakhshan. Hossein works in Toronto and has been fighting the Iranian government online since 2000. (For more, see this great interview Jesse Elve of Blog Canada conducted with him recently.)

Hossein told Johotheblog last year there were 1,200 blogs in Iran. The BBC now estimates the number at 10-15,000.

More important, they represent the only free press left in that country.

It is dangerous to stand up to tyranny. It is especially dangerous to do so publicly, in your own name, even from Toronto. A tyrants' reach can be very, very long, and very, very deadly.

Yet Hossein keeps at it.

Recently Hossein organized a protest against press censorship in which bloggers renamed their efforts after banned newspapers.

The authorities are trying to respond through a national Intranet that will, as in other countries, cut Iranians off from any content the authorities deem unsuitable for them.

And Hossein already has an answer to that. E-mail.

Oh, and if you don't think anyone cares you should know that Hossein's Farsi-language blog is currently #55 on Blogstreet's Top 100 list, with 358 blogs blogrolling it.