To keep the Internet as the socially empowering and productivity-boosting tool it is today, we should guard against government attacks on internet freedom.

Late last month, the Americanbased non-governmental organisation Freedom House released the latest edition of its annual Freedom on the Net report, which assesses the extent to which citizens in 65 countries are able to access and use the internet without legal and other restrictions.

The report establishes an internet freedom index using measures capturing obstacles to access (including government blocking of apps and technologies), limits on content (such as filtering and blocking websites and social media censorship), and violations of user rights (through surveillance and legal restrictions of online activities).

On a global scale, internet freedom had deteriorated for the fourth consecutive year, Freedom House said.

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That is mainly the result of repressive tactics adopted in autocratic, or increasingly autocratic, regimes such as China, Russia and Turkey, which included blocking political dissent through social media, increasing surveillance of web users, and governments putting pressure on internet providers and online companies to censor themselves.

While the merits of the disclosure of United States National Security Agency activities by Edward Snowden continue to be debated, it is unfortunate that governments around the world are using the NSA revelations increasingly as an alibi to crack down on free expression over the internet.

And there have been some recent concerns raised about the effective future Balkanisation of the World Wide Web resulting from the United States, which has traditionally dedicated itself to promulgating an open internet, considering scaling back its role in global internet governance of web addresses and domain names.

Australia was ranked the 17th-freest country for internet access and usage - a position it has held the past few years - behind Iceland, Estonia and Canada in the international rankings of internet freedom in 2014.

This country is lauded for its relatively affordable, highquality internet and digital media access, and people's ability to discuss controversial and sensitive political and social issues freely online without the threat of political persecution.

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The world needs more internet freedom, not less