Beatdown on Bloggers

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As the internet becomes an increasingly important source of information for the public, government repression is shifting from traditional journalists to bloggers, according to the latest Worldwide Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders. The report notes the arrest of bloggers in China, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as the case of San Francisco blogger Josh Wolf, who was jailed for eight months for refusing to provide evidence in a grand jury investigation. "We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship," the organization states. "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."