INTERNET FREEDOM is being slowly eroded, according to a report sponsored by the United Nations and written by Freedomhouse.org.
The report looked at Internet freedoms in 37 nation states and found, not surprisingly, that some nations were pretty good, while some were particularly bad.
Estonia, then, was deemed to be the land of the free, with other places including the UK, Australia, Germany and the US playing second fiddle. Iran, Cuba and China were found to be the very worst of the worst.
How good or bad a country is, with regard to Internet freedom, was worked out in a variety of ways, and points were added to a ranking depending on three things - obstacles to access, limits on content, and violation of user rights.
The first of these is based on the infrastructural and economic barriers to access, as well as government efforts to block applications and technologies as well as what regulatory or other controls are in place.
The second, limits on content, looked at what blocks or web filters are in place as well as any other forms of censorship or filtering, and the last, violations of users rights, looked at what restrictions are placed on online activity, for example through surveillance.
Free countries were awarded scores of between 0 and 30, partly free 31 to 60, and not free 61 to 100. Estonia earned itself just ten points, the UK 25, China 83 and Iran 89.
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