Free Press, Free Speech Meet Internet Censorship As Media Moves Online

Governments worldwide are developing new tools to censor reporters as the media increasingly moves online, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Sixty-nine journalists whose work appears mostly online were jailed as of Dec. 1, representing almost half of all reporters imprisoned worldwide. The press advocacy group said the sophisticated censorship techniques are often coupled with physical intimidation of online journalists. The committee looked at 10 common strategies that governments are using to suppress information. Those tools include state-supported email designed to take over journalists' personal computers in China, the shutting down of anti-censorship technology in Iran, monopolistic control of the Internet in Ethiopia, and synchronized cyber-attacks in Belarus.