The Paris based international NGO, "Reporters Without Borders" or RWB, which advocates freedom of the press, in its recently released report, stated that the countries, such as Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, are the "Enemies of the Internet".

In its annual report on the state of Internet censorship and repression around the world, released on Mar. 12, the humanitarian group RWB stated that these countries prevent their people from accessing 'undesirable' online information through internet.

According to RWB, these countries are repressive countries and they use troublesome Internet users to hinder their people's access to 'undesirable' online information.

RWB wrote, "All these countries distinguish themselves not only by their ability to censor online news and information but also by their virtually systematic persecution of troublesome Internet users."

"Not only is the Internet more and more controlled, but new forms of censorship are emerging based on the manipulation of information. Orchestrating the posting of comments on popular websites or organising hacker attacks is also used by repressive regimes to scramble or jam online content," the group wrote.

RWB particularly alleged China and Egypt of treating activitst internet users unfairly. The group stated that these countries often put the activist bloggers behind bars.

RWB criticized the US technology companies - Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft for cooperating with the "Enemies of the Internet". The group articulated that these companies champion privacy and free speech rights at home, but overseas they paly in the hands of oppressive adminstrators of the enemies of internet.

"They are aware of what's going on," said Clothilde Le Coz, who heads the RWB's Internet freedom desk, referring to Internet companies Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. Le Coz said, these companies are "not going far enough" to protect their users from repressive governments.

RWB wrote that these three companies have, in fact, cooperated with Chinese officials to censor or prosecute Internet users. The group cited several instances, like - Microsoft erased the blog of political activist Michael Anti in 2005; Journalist Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, after China Yahoo! provided his information to authorities; and Google China does not show up the government blacklisted sites in its search.