More than 20 countries restrict their population's access to the Internet, a new study has shown.
Dubbed, Governing the Internet, the report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said that many governments stifled use of the internet through fear of political opposition. Case studies of Kazakhstan, Georgia, China, Iran, Sudan and Belarus were included in the research.
The report stated: "Recent moves against free speech on the internet in a number of countries have provided a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes, democracies and dictatorships alike, seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear." Though speaking out on the web "has never been easier" there has been a spread of internet censorship of late, the 212-page report said.
Rules regarding the Internet in Kazakhstan are so nonspecific that they can easily be used for suppression. In 2005 Kazakhstan seized all .kz internet domains and shut down one run by the satirist Sacha Baron Cohen. Click here for more information on digital products and services.
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