Journalists worldwide are routinely threatened and intimidated, or worse, resulting in a climate of fear that endangers freedom of the press from Latin America to Southeast Asia, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. This follows the trend outlined in a previous issue of Strategic Media Relations Report last August. The report chronicles the gulf that is widening between technology and censorship - and underlines the importance of technology in today's media.

In documenting the changing pattern of worldwide violence, arrest, and imprisonment aimed at journalists, the 2008 CPJ report makes important distinctions among the perpetrators of draconian measures intended to force the press into submission.

One major distinction is between governments that routinely and brazenly censor the press, and those that claim press freedom yet carefully scrutinize and intimidate journalists to achieve their censorship goals.

Another rising factor is that many journalists are not being censored by the government, but instead are being controlled by violent criminals. These include criminal syndicates in Mexico, terrorists in Afghanistan, or militias and vigilantes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Operating brazenly in their countries, these may pose more of a threat to press freedom than outright government censorship.

Much of the report focuses on Internet censorship, as regimes try to contain the danger the Web poses to their 21st century models of authoritarian governance and emerging market economies. More Internet journalists are jailed worldwide today than journalists working in any other medium, according to the latest CPJ census of imprisoned journalists. Forty-five percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors - making up the largest professional category in CPJ's prison census for the first time.

Another key technology that is receiving attention is text messaging. In places like Africa, with a very low Internet adoption rate, cell phones have become the media of choice. An example cited was the fraud uncovered in the Kenya elections, as poll reports by phone were decidedly different from the official counts.

So far this year, nine journalists have been killed, and over 125 journalists were jailed last year. In almost every country and culture where basic human rights have been won in the past 35 years, the press has been in the vanguard of this great effort.