Increased internet censorship by countries supressing political and religious thought impairs the freedom and openness inherent to the international network called the internet.

The National Intelligence Open Source Center has reported Iranian blogs have been targeted, somewhat unsuccessfully. Burma, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, and Syria all have suppressive policies, not to mention totalitarian North Korea, the ultimate nanny state. Venezuela, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, the PRC, and Singapore have required that Internet Service Providers not only install censorship software but monitor their clients, lest the ISPs themselves be penalized. Likewise, a year ago Russia took over all independent nationwide TV stations and restricted nongovernmental organizations.

A study by Reporters Without Borders cited North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Cuba, Burma, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, respectively, as the top violators of Press Freedom.

Opinion
"Mechanical Engineers build weapons; Civil Engineers build targets."
likewise, censorship builds walls, freedom builds battering rams.
--anon

The American experience is that ideas are impossible to quell. Companies that have flourished in that free system would do better to stand up to censors than to join them.
--AP writer

References
The full Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which is published yearly, can be found at http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=659.