vigilant TV

UPI reports on internet censorship in Iraq. As with the Chinese and Saudi censorship regimes, the list of blocked web sites is variable and often arbitrary.

Yahoo! and Hotmail, highly popular sites in most of the world for
their extensive services such as shopping, reference, personals and
chat rooms, are among the blocked sites in Iraq. Naturally, one can
expect the authorities to block any Web page providing political and
other sensitive news as well.

But strangely, the Google search site popped up just fine, for
example.

When asked why certain “harmless” Internet sites are being blocked,
Jassem self-consciously replied, “Yes, it’s true that some sites are
banned and could not be accessed. But it’s because they contain
materials that violate (rules of social) decency and religion.”

[...]

In fact, Iraq employs some 400 to 500 people to run the
government-owned Internet network and the special Internet cafes.

“This large number of employees, compared to the number of users, is
for controlling and censoring the Internet,” said an Iraqi engineer
living in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. “Their main headache is to
make people access the ‘right information’ and this consumes about 60
percent of their time.”

– UPI, Feature: The Internet, Iraqi style.