Report Names China and Iran as World’s Top “Internet Enemies”

Posted 03/15/2010 at 12:51pm | by Bart Salisbury

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The Internet is a good thing, unless the Internet is a bad thing. For open societies, the Internet helps to establish and expand social networks, provide a free-flow of information, and engage in new found economic opportunities. For less open societies, these benefits are seen more as a negative than a positive. Says Reporters Without Borders, some 60 countries are having issues with an unfettered Internet, with China and Iran topping that list.

Reporters Without Borders are advocates of an uncensored Internet. According to its report for 2009 activity about twice as many countries are now practicing some form of Internet censorship than in 2008. An expected rouges gallery leads the list: Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Reporters Without Borders say countries appear on their list because they repress or restrict Internet content, or because they harass or punish people who express themselves online. (China being the worst offender, with 72 people in jail for speaking too freely online.)

Besides the usual suspects, Reporters Without Borders has two democratic countries on a “watch list”: Australia, because of a proposed Internet filtering system, and South Korea, which has been instituting laws that restrict Internet users.

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