Blogger Report

CPJ's ranking is helpful in that it makes the world pay attention to countries that censor the Internet. I do not know much about other countries, but I know about China. I believe that the outside world (as well as people within China) cannot actually know how many people are jailed because of Internet speech. The successful cover-up of this information makes China's rank lower than it should be, but coming in at number eight regardless indicates how bad the situation is.

Blogging in Burma is nearly as dangerous as protesting on the streets against the country's military-run government. So it will come as no surprise to those who closely monitor Burma's heavily restricted media and censored Internet that CPJ has ranked the country as the worst place in the world to be a blogger. 

Why write a blog? My reasons might not be convincing, but to me, they are enough. The most important paper in my country is Granma, the official organ of the Communist Party in Cuba. You open it, you read it, and you don't see anything. Nothing about the day that we are living in the island. It's a piece of paper that does not say who we are. That's why I write a blog; because I want to reflect my part of Cuba. 

The specter of government opposition to blogging, journalism, and free expression in general in Tunisia is so intense that the mere appearance of a specific name online is enough to push the government to block the Web site where it appears, even if that site is not critical of the government. 

Even though Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov announced two years ago the necessity of universal Internet access, the Web is more than restricted in the country. This is connected to cruel official censorship, the serious limitation of the availability and speed of Internet connections in cities, and its total absence in villages. I haven't even mentioned the high price of going online, the strict state monitoring of the few public Internet cafes in the cities, and the widespread practice of opening and inspecting instant messages and e-mails.

CPJ names the worst online oppressors. Booming online cultures in many Asian and Middle Eastern nations have led to aggressive government repression. Burma leads the dishonor roll.