Grim Net Censorship Report Free Speech6/5/2000; 7:11:23 AM March 27, 2000: "Censorship of the Internet by governments is spreading and may become a threat to traditional media liberty, a report on press freedom said on Wednesday.

'The explosion of news and information on the World Wide Web is tempting governments, developed and developing, politically free and not free, to consider restricting content on the Internet,' said the report conducted by human rights group Freedom House."

A good overview of the situation. Astonishingly, Wired does not provide a link to the report itself, I had to go find it. It has a breakdown by every country in the world of the status of freedom of the press in that country... for instance:

France French media are free, though radio and television are subject to political influence. The government’s financial support of journalism and the registration of journalists have raised concerns about media independence. Publication of opinion poll results is prohibited in the week preceding any election. Five journalists were attacked by police at two demonstrations. Another journalist was arrested and his offices searched for refusing to reveal sources of his reporting.

From the report (html version of the essay): "By a French monitoring organization's estimate, 45 countries now restrict Internet access on the pretext of protecting the public from subversive ideas or violations of national security -- code words used by censors since the sixteenth century."