"This report provides an overview of the different kinds of laws that affect the media and explains how they are used in many countries to influence the operations of news outlets and the information they offer. It focuses on restrictive laws more than on those of the enabling and empowering variety, for the simple reason that enabling laws are–unfortunately–relatively rare. It also considers how Internet-based outlets are affected by laws, and how the legal regime in a country affects the ability of individual bloggers or citizen journalists to hold their governments to account. This is a particularly significant area of inquiry as the reach of digital media spreads around the world, increasing in importance as the means by which citizens receive their news and information. While the focus of this report is on the impact of laws on media in the developing world, it also considers the use of laws–particularly on terrorism and libel–in other parts of the world. Many countries have inherited their libel laws from Britain or France, for example, and legal developments there continue to be influential elsewhere. Similarly, many countries have taken a copycat approach to introducing new anti-terrorism laws from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe and have applied them to clamp down on those who criticize the government." (Introduction, page 4)