If you are ever looking for a way to compare Internet freedom from country to country, the OpenNet Initiative is a good place to start.
The ONI regularly monitors Internet access around the globe. (And they really don’t make a lot of governments happy with their results. Just this week, responding to "a complaint" United Nations security removed a poster advertising the ONI’s new book on how government block Internet access. The main offending words were a blub on the book jacket cover that singled out China as a major offender. See OpenNet group censored by United Nations at the SPJ International Journalism Committee blog site.)
The group has comprehensive reports on regions and countries. For example, on Latin America the group notes
With the exception of Cuba, systematic technical filtering of the Internet has yet to take hold in Latin America. The regulation of Internet content addresses largely the same concerns and strategies seen in North America and Europe, focusing on combating the spread of child pornography and restricting child access to age-inappropriate material. As Internet usage in Latin America increases, so have defamation, hate speech, copyright, and privacy issues.
but it does point out that self-censorship is a real problem:
The level of openness of the media environment in Latin America is reputed to be subject to considerable self-censorship, particularly in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela.4 Because of threats from local drug cartels or other gangs and individuals, many journalists practice self-censorship,5 including many in Colombia who avoid reporting on corruption, drug trafficking, or violence by armed groups because of such threats. Drug gangs waging a campaign of intimidation in Mexico not only tack notes to corpses and publish newspaper ads, but have also posted a video on YouTube where an alleged Zeta member (a group of cartel operatives) is tortured and decapitated.6 The few Cubans who gain access are limited by extensive monitoring and excessive penalties for political dissent expressed on the Internet, leading to a climate of self-censorship.
The issue of self-censorship is one that even the most tech-unsavvy jouralist can get behind.
And the opening sentence on China tells it all:
China has devoted extensive resources to building one of the largest and most sophisticated filtering systems in the world
Over all the site is a great resource for any story that looks at Internet access. It has easy to read reports and charts. And the folks running the place are easy to reach for comments.
