Text by Sarah Phelan
It’s not as snappy sounding as Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” but Reporters without Borders “Enemies of the Internet” report lists Iran and N. Korea among its 12 top perpetrators, along with Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
According to RWB, all 12 have transformed their Internet into an “Intranet in order to prevent their population from accessing ‘undesirable’ online information.”
Reporters Without Borders has also placed 10 other governments “under surveillance” for adopting worrying measures that could open the way to abuses, and draws attention to Australia and South Korea, where they say recent measures may endanger online free expression.
“Orchestrating the posting of comments on popular websites or organizing hacker attacks is also used by repressive regimes to scramble or jam online content,” RWB adds, noting that 70 cyber-dissidents are currently detained because of what they posted online, and that China is the world’s biggest prison for cyber-dissidents, followed by Vietnam and Iran.
Notably, Iraq did not make it onto RWB’s list.