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Bloggers are now threatened as much as traditional media journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In its latest press freedom survey, the organisation says the internet is occupying more and more space in the breakdown of press freedom violations with 64 people currently imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted online.
RSF says that several countries fell in the international rankings this year because of “serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information.”
The media freedom watchdog says it is concerned about the increasing number of cases of online censorship.
“More and more governments have realised that the internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it.
“The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media.”
RSF names Malaysia (124th), Thailand (135th), Vietnam (162nd) and Egypt (146th), as countries where bloggers were arrested and news websites were closed or made inaccessible.
According to RSF, China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison.
The organisation says that eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.
In terms of traditional and online media, RSF says Eritrea has replaced North Korea in last place in an index measuring the level of press freedom in 169 countries.
Outside Europe - in which the top 14 countries are located - no region of the world has been spared censorship or violence towards journalists.
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