In the surest sign that bloggers have become a deadly serious topic for authoritarian governments, our online town criers have been increasingly targeted for imprisonment or intimidation. Last year the international advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists found that of 125 media members behind bars around the world, at least 56 practiced their trade online, the first time that print reporters, editors and photographers have not predominated in the tally since the first Internet writer was jailed in 1997. To mark World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, CPJ issued a new report pinpointing the 10 worst countries for bloggers.

New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) recently obtained a list of politically “sensitive” words monitored or censored by China’s largest Internet search engine, Baidu.com, as well as internal documents governing Baidu’s censorship operations. Topping the list is the phrase “Chinese Communist Party.” Phrases such as “withdrawing from the Communist Party” and “disintegrating the Communist Party” are also censored. “Nine Commentaries,” “The Epoch Times,” and “Gao Zhisheng,” are high on the censor list.

Fiji's military government has warned that news censorship and controls over the country's media could be extended indefinitely. "At the moment you can say it is censorship," government spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni told the Fijilive news web site. "If I was given the choice, I'd leave it there for the next five years." The regime posted censors in newsrooms last month as it extended its grip on power in the South Pacific country, and has forced publishers to supply "positive" news and barred criticism of the government and its actions. Already more than a dozen local print, broadcast and internet journalists have been arrested, held in police cells and interrogated about news items the regime says breached its controls. At least three foreign correspondents have been expelled from the country.

Washington - Growing restrictions on the print and electronic press in Russia are reminiscent of the Kremlin's tight control of media during the Soviet period, according to a new report from Freedom House. "Media freedom continued to decline in 2008, with the Kremlin relying on Soviet-style media management to facilitate a sensitive political transition as well as deflecting responsibility for widespread corruption and political violence," the report said.