A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Reporters Without Borders: 12 "Internet Enemies" include Seven in Greater Middle East (Also my 100th Post!)

Reporters Without Borders, the international organization that supports freedom of the press, has issued a new report on "Internet Enemies" in which it lists the 12 worst offenders against Internet freedom. Unfortunately, seven of the 12 are in the greater Middle East. Alphabetically (not in order of harshness), the seven are Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The other five offenders are Burma, China, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam: not very good company to be in.

I'm just starting to read the report and may post more later. Meanwhile, the press release in English is here and the full Internet Enemies report is here (Acrobat).

They also append ten "countries under surveillance," meaning they're watching them closely, which include Bahrain, Eritrea, the UAE and Yemen, but also Australia and South Korea. Australia? The report also includes some useful links.

And, just to note a benchmark, this marks my 100th posting, beginning on January 27. Since I don't usually post weekends (or is that an odd observation to post on Sunday?) I think that averages three or so per work day. Thanks to those who are reading me and commenting, have linked to me, to the 43 (if Feedburner's count is reliable) RSS feed recipients as of yesterday, and do tell others if you like what you're seeing.

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