Read the full report at :
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=433

Reporters Without Borders has published its annual report on the state
of online freedom in more than 60 countries - The Internet Under
Surveillance. The rights of Internet users, webmasters and online
journalists have been substantially curbed since the 11 September 2001
attacks in the United States. The fight against terrorism has led to
stricter monitoring of Internet traffic in both democracies and under
authoritarian regimes.

Four countries throw people in jail for posting "subversive" topics
online - China (with 63 cyber-dissidents in prison), Vietnam (7), the
Maldives (3) and Syria (2). Censorship of online publications is
steadily increasing and dictatorships are developing more and more
sophisticated ways of filtering the Internet. China and Vietnam are
experts in the field. But the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Tunisia
and Turkmenistan also block access to a very wide range of websites,
including those featuring pornography, independent magazines, banned
religions and human rights.

Cuba, Burma and North Korea have even harsher policies and restrict
Internet access to a tiny minority of citizens rather than set up
costly monitoring systems. Democratic countries have steadily chipped
away at the freedom of their Internet users. This involves laudable
aims, such as fighting online paedophilia, helping dismantle terrorist
networks and protecting cultural industries against piracy. But
governments are having trouble reconciling users' rights to message
privacy and freedom of expression with more and more serious financial
and security concerns. As a result, Internet freedom is now much less
legally protected than that of the traditional media in most
democratic countries.