10 Most Censored Countries In The World

the 10 most censored countries

Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the 10 most censored countries.

For this list, we’re looking at the countries where the press has the least amount of freedom, and the internet is heavily restricted.

Are there other countries which have equally censorious policies? Let us know in the comments which country you’d least like to live in.

#10: Cuba

Censorship in Cuba is a complex issue, and it’s worth keeping in mind that conditions for the press and the freedom of information have improved significantly in Cuba this century. For a long time, there were strict controls on what information could be broadcast or printed, and protests in 2021 raised awareness of the political realities of life in Cuba. Various government bodies are responsible for regulating access to information. Cuba also has an internet infrastructure not as advanced as other countries which limits which citizens can get online, and then they need to be savvy enough to get around various blocks. And that’s all despite freedom of information being enshrined in Cuba’s constitution.

#9: Equatorial Guinea

Human rights groups have put a lot of attention on Equatorial Guinea in recent years for the country’s oppressive government, particularly in 2020 when many of the country’s journalists working on television showed soldiers using immense violence to enforce the Covid-19 lockdown. Equatorial Guinea has also detained many journalists for reporting negatively about the country’s President, while Guinean journalists who have left the country and reported on it from elsewhere have also received condemnation back home. But though the country strictly controls its own media networks, access to foreign TV stations is allowed, so people are able to get outside news that isn’t filtered through a state mouthpiece.

#8: Iran

For decades, Iran has enforced increasingly strict policies about the internet and social media, enacting even more as unrest in the country has increased. Most notably, during 2019’s “Bloody November” protests, the internet in Iran was totally shut down for a week, which severely hindered the ability to organize protests and spread the word about injustice. Most Western media sites are completely blocked for the general population, while even stricter rules were passed by the Iranian parliament in 2021. This 2021 bill was seen by many as trying to curb internet access, with the government constantly cracking down on communication apps like Telegram and WhatsApp to stop people from talking to one another.

#7: Vietnam

The censorship apparatus of the Vietnamese government has become powerful enough that even Facebook has been forced to purge user content from its timeline. Vietnam has freedom of speech in theory but not necessarily in practice, with people often being prevented from expressing opinions against the Communist Party online. And like many other countries, journalists often come under fire, with three reporters getting prison sentences in 2021 for “spreading materials opposing the state.” It’s these opinions that are also being excised from the accounts of Vietnamese Facebook users, with Facebook unwilling to risk losing Vietnam’s large userbase – which provides it with hundreds of millions in revenue each year.

#6: China

Though China is often the first country brought up when people talk about censorship, the actual situation is significantly more complex. However, the Chinese Communist Party does block and restrict access to many Western websites, especially those viewed to have a bias against China, and doesn’t have a great track record where freedom of the press is concerned. Many journalists have been detained by the authorities over the years, notably those who broke the mandated media silence around the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s. China has its own state-controlled media outlets and the country’s websites and social media platforms, like Weibo, can be easily controlled. There are also robust blocks on foreign websites dubbed the “Great Firewall”.

#5: Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government’s control of the internet has ebbed and flowed in the twenty-first century, with rollbacks of some laws being followed by reversions to stricter censorship. In 2020, fewer than 20% of Ethiopians had access to the internet – though it’s worth noting this is a huge increase from where it was before, and it is getting better each year. But not only is it tricky just to get online in Ethiopia, but political unrest – like an attempted coup back in 2019 – has also triggered massive internet blackouts. This particular blackout lasted for an entire week and prevented millions of people from accessing any news about the situation.

#4: Turkmenistan

Shockingly, in early 2020 – just as the world was beginning to understand the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic – Turkmenistan’s government decided that the state-owned media companies were not allowed to use the word “coronavirus.” This is just one example of the country’s long history of suppression and censorship, as the authorities will also detain journalists with impunity – and many of these journalists have gone completely missing. But a big part of Turkmenistan’s censorship is of the Russian language; as a former Soviet state, the country has a lot of Russian speakers, but Russian newspapers were banned back in 2006. And in 2021, some Turkmens claimed they had been made to swear on the Quran not to use VPNs.

#3: Saudi Arabia

The country already has a damning track record where human rights are concerned, as it is still illegal to be gay or trans and women were unable to drive until 2018. The Saudi monarchy has for decades led punishing crackdowns on the press and, eventually, the internet, silencing any criticism of the royalty, government, and the country itself. In 2019, Saudi Arabia made the news again for demanding Netflix remove an episode of the talk show “Patriot Act” in which Hasan Minhaj criticized the royal family. And yet bizarrely, Saudi Arabia has also pledged to drastically increase its citizens’ access to broadband internet – which seems contradictory when so many websites are blacklisted.

#2: North Korea

It remains one of the most heavily censored and restrictive governments anywhere in the world. Not only is information extremely controlled, but people can get arrested if they communicate with or attempt to communicate with those who have left the country. While even China does have some independent media outlets – despite being heavily supervised and monitored by the government – North Korea does not; absolutely all news and information is carefully delivered from the country’s singular news agency. Even access to radio equipment is severely restricted to stop people tuning in to foreign stations, and all journalists go through intense background checks and are not allowed to go against the party line.

#1: Eritrea

According to metrics published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Eritrea is absolutely the most heavily censored country anywhere in the world. The government is so cruel to journalists seen to defy it that many have tragically died while in custody with no trial – though information is predictably thin on the ground. Though Eritrean government officials say that foreign TV networks are widely accessible in Eritrea, only 1% of the population has any kind of internet. Anonymous activist groups have sprung up to try and provide independent news often from outside Eritrea, but doing so is extremely dangerous and carries huge risks – as we’ve seen from the many terrible stories of journalist detention.