The World Information Access program at the University of Washington reports that the number of blogger arrests are rising. Unsurprisingly, Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog. The report also includes data on political party websites and media ownership int he Middle East.

A summary of the report on bloggers:

INTERNATIONAL ARRESTS OF CITIZEN BLOGGERS MORE THAN TRIPLE
Publication Date: Jun. 10, 2008

Authoritarian regimes around the world are dealing with troublesome citizen
bloggers by arresting them, and they’re doing it more often, according to
researchers at the University of Washington.

“Last year, 2007, was a record year for blogger arrests, with three times as
many as in 2006. Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog
about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since
blogging became big,” said Phil Howard, an assistant professor of
communication. With his students, Howard prepared the World Information
Access Report, which documents sources and consequences of social inequality
in the information age.
In response to harassment, a significant number of political bloggers are
going underground. They are blogging anonymously, and using other online
tools such as MySpace and YouTube to post critical commentary.

Since 2003, 64 citizens unaffiliated with news organizations have been
arrested for their blogging. Topics of these blog posts vary, as do the
kinds of criminal charges and punishments.

But these arrests are probably just the tip of the iceberg, Howard said.
“The real number of arrested bloggers is probably much higher, since many
arrests in China, Zimbabwe, and Iran go unreported in the international
media.”

Altogether around the world, bloggers have served 940 months of jail time in
the last five years, the researchers found. During those years, the average
prison term for citizen journalists was 15 months. “Many countries have
political bloggers, and many persecute journalists,” Howard said. “More and
more citizens are expressing themselves online, and being punished for it.”

Jail sentences varied from blogger to blogger, the least amount a few hours
and the longest eight years. Nine of Egypt’s 14 known blogger arrests
occurred in 2007, an election year. In 2005, Iranian blogger Mojtaba
Saminejad was arrested for writing about the arrests of other bloggers.
“Some people blog about their arrests as soon as they get out of jail,”
Howard said.