More Crushing of Dissent

First in the exepted banana republics:

A U.S.-based press freedom group said Wednesday that President Hugo Chavez is using the courts and legal reforms to weaken journalists critical of his leftist government. (T)he Inter American Press Association expressed concern that threats to press freedom under Chavez could increase as Venezuela prepares for presidential elections in December.

"The different branches of government appear to have a strategy to weaken the work of the independent press," IAPA President Diana Daniels of The Washington Post Co., told a press conference. "We are worried that, far from improving press conditions in the country, freedom could be further restricted before and after the election."

and also, unfortunatley, in large democracies:

India's burgeoning blogging community is up in arms against a government directive that they say has led to the blocking of their web logs. The country's 153 internet service providers (ISP) have blocked 17 websites since last week on federal government orders. Some of these sites belong to Google's Blogspot, a leading international web log hosting service.