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Reporters Without Borders has added Bahrain and Belarus to its "Enemies of the Internet" list for their restrictive approach to the Web.

Bahrain and Belarus join the ranks of other countries that RWB considers to be most restricting Internet freedom, including Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

"Bahrain offers an example of an effective news blackout based on a remarkable array of repressive measures: keeping the international media away, harassing human rights activists, arresting bloggers and netizens (one of whom died in detention), smearing and prosecuting free speech activists, and disrupting communications, especially during the major demonstrations," RWB said.

Belarus President Lukashenko, meanwhile, has increasingly cracked down on the Web as citizens have used it to mobilize against his regime.

"The list of blocked websites has grown longer and the Internet was partially blocked during the 'silent protests,'" RWB said. "Some Belarusian Internet users and bloggers have been arrested while others have been invited to 'preventive conversations' with the police in a bid to get them to stop demonstrating or covering demonstrations."

The Belarus government has used Twitter to intimidate protestors, RWB continued, while the country's main ISP has diverted those trying to access social network Vkontakte to sites with malware.

A new law that took effect on Jan. 6, meanwhile, "reinforced Internet surveillance and control measures," RWB said.

Last year, Bahrain and Belarus were on RWB's "under surveillance" list, but their actions bumped them up to the official "enemies" list.

The "under surveillance" category includes countries like Egypt, where "the new regime has resumed old practices and has directly targeted the most outspoken blogger," RWB said.

But it also includes Australia, thanks to its content filtering plans, as well as France, due to its anti-piracy laws.

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Bahrain, Belarus Added to 'Enemies of the Internet' List