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In 1780, John Adams wrote, "The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom."
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Countries with the worst human rights abuses tend to pass laws prohibiting the publication and consumption of dissenting opinions.
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Freedom of the press is so important, it is written into the US’s First Amendment,
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but not all countries share this view.
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So, what are the countries with the worst censorship policies?
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In recent years, media watchdog groups have repeatedly pointed to the African country of Eritrea as having the most aggressively restrictive press censorship.
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Eritrea has used a sort of state of emergency concerning their border dispute with Ethiopia
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in order to force independent media outlets to close, and arrest journalists.
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This is unsurprising in light of the fact that Eritrea has one of the worst human rights records in the world,
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with religious persecution, indefinite military conscription, and until recently, female genital mutilation as just a few of their problems.
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Since 2000, 23 journalists have been jailed without being charged, and several have reportedly died in custody.
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Less than 1 percent of citizens have internet access,
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and even that is filtered through the country’s only telecommunications company.
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The next worst offender is North Korea.
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Information in the Hermit Kingdom is known to be tightly controlled, and massively misinformed.
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Their exclusively state-run media makes claims like “North Korea Leads the World in Human Rights”
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while having among the worst human rights record in the world.
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Additionally, access to the internet is rare, and unrestricted cell phones are prohibited.
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Some residents are able to access the country’s internal internet
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which is a collection of several thousand government curated websites designed to spread propaganda.
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Saudi Arabia is also a big proponent of punishing dissent.
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As a monarchy, the country uses royal decrees and anti-terrorism scares to outlaw any criticism of the government or Islam.
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They use an absentee court to pass harsh sentences without the defendant even being present.
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They also monitor web traffic, blocking any sites that are incompatible with state positions.
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In 2011, they passed a law forcing all online bloggers and news organizations to apply for a license in order to continue operating.
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China is also well known for its strict and aggressive internet censorship, and holds the largest number of jailed journalists, 44 in 2014.
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Vietnam’s government has strict laws that dictate all media should be used as a mouthpiece for the country’s Communist party.
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Bloggers are kept under supervision, attacked in the street, and regularly arrested.
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As reported by the Freedom of the Press index,
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only about 14% of the world lives in a country with a truly unrestricted press, mostly in North America, Europe, and Australia.
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The worst are found in Africa and Asia.
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Luckily, in many restrictive countries, residents use clandestine means to gain and report information from the outside world.
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Despite the harsh punishments they face, it’s clear that people will find a way to get informed.
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In 2009, while I was held captive in North Korea, I was allowed to watch some television with my guards
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and I got an inside look at what the country’s media was really like.
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While they did have shows related to exercise, cooking and even the American cartoon Tom & Jerry,
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the majority of programming was devoted to government propaganda.
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To learn more about what got me through that very difficult time please check out watch my new series Rituals.