May 24, 2006: Some countries take an extreme attitude towards controlling the media. A media NGO has compiled a list of the countries that are most successful in controlling the media within their borders. Seventeen criteria were used, which included lack of access to the Internet and foreign media in general, control on journalists, censorship laws and so on. The most restrictive nation was North Korea (no surprise), followed by (a few surprises) Burma, Turkmenistan, Libya, Syria, Cuba and Uzbekistan. Most of these are the usual suspects, but most people are unaware if how strict the media control has been in the new, post Cold War, nations on Central Asia (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in particular.) Cuba and North Korea are two of the few communist nations left and, like their predecessors, are enthusiastic when it comes to press control. Burma, Libya and Syria are traditional dictatorships, all with socialist pretensions. Leftist tyrannies tend to be much more hostile to press freedom than their rightist counterparts. The leftist dictators have always been more sensitive to the benefits of Information War success. This actually works, which accounts for the large number of North Korean fans in South Korea, Japan, Europe and North America. Tell a lie often enough, and some people will believe it. Thus the Nazis (a rightist tyranny) always comes off as a greater evil than the communist nations (who actually killed more people in the 20th century.)