10 Most Censored Countries
Where you can bid adieu to freedom of the press.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) studied media freedom in dozens of countries to determine the level of access people have to information and the methods some states use to censor news and information. The CPJ used the following criteria to develop its list of the world's most censored countries: state control of the media, formal censorship rules, violence against and imprisonment of journalists, and restricted access to foreign news and the Internet.
China climbed up from its previous rank of 9, and three new countries censored their way onto the list. Turkmenistan controls all media in the country, which has tied into a more recent crackdown on political dissidence (including allegations of torture and political arrests). Belarus also climbed the list. Both of these states are former members of the Eastern bloc, which have suffered problems with corruption since their independence from the former USSR.
| Rank | Country |
|---|---|
| 1 | Eritrea |
| 2 | North Korea |
| 3 | Turkmenistan |
| 4 | Saudi Arabia |
| 5 | China |
| 6 | Vietnam |
| 7 | Iran |
| 8 | Equatorial Guinea |
| 9 | Belarus |
| 10 | Cuba |
Trending
Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
