Two European companies - a major contractor to the U.S. government and a top cell-phone equipment maker - last year installed an electronic surveillance system for Iran that human rights advocates and intelligence experts say can help Iran target dissidents. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is...

The house of the Tunisian journalist and blogger Zied el-Heni has been raided last night (April 10, 2009). In a blog post published today, Zied wrote that his laptop and CDs which contain all his work have been robbed: "I am sorry to inform you that my house has been raided and robbed on April 10, 2009. They stole my laptop and CDs which contain the efforts of my work day and night. I...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, The first line of his first blog from Tehran in September 2006 asks: "What is freedom?" Omidreza Mirsayafi answered his own question. "I don't know," he wrote, "but I know someday I will see its shadow falling on my land." Two and half years later, from behind the gray walls of Tehran's Evin Prison, he phoned his mother. They talked...

Freedom Net identifies wide disparities in internet freedom among the 15 countries studied and raises concern over trends such as the "outsourcing of censorship" to private companies and authoritarian governments' use of undercover agents to manipulate online conversations. The report cites both repressive and democratic governments for internet surveillance and for failing to...

Iran leads the way in the Middle East in repression of the Internet. According to the Tehran prosecutor general's adviser, the authorities Blocked five million websites inn2008. However the country has The region's most militant bloggers, four of whom are currently in prison. Internet penetration is above average in the region and in the run-up to presidential elections due on 12 June, the...