The Toronto Star, Aug. 4, on the spreading censorship of Research in Motion services:

Canada’s Research in Motion hopes to rock the telecom world with its new BlackBerry Torch smart phone. But it comes at an unsettled time. Security-obsessed officials in some countries are carrying anything but a torch for RIM’s services.

U.S. President Barack Obama may be a subscriber, one of 41 million in 175 countries. And the U.S. and other al-Qaida-targeted states apparently don’t see BlackBerry as a major security risk. But RIM is under pressure from other regimes determined to monitor its traffic.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has promised to “stand up” for RIM in this tussle. Good. As U.S. officials point out, this is in part about “human rights and the free flow of information.” That’s worth trying to preserve.

The United Arab Emirates has threatened to suspend BlackBerry Messenger, e-mail and Web browser services unless RIM gives it access to encrypted messages. Saudi Arabia is blocking some services. Bahrain doesn’t want Messenger to carry local news. And Kuwait wants porn sites blocked.

Meanwhile, officials in India fear more wireless-phone directed attacks such as the one on Mumbai that left 166 dead. They too want more oversight.

Ominously, some regimes seem to regard BlackBerry as an obstacle to “reinforcing censorship, filtering and surveillance,” as Reporters Without Borders puts it. They’d like to be able to read over users’ shoulders. The squeeze RIM faces in the Gulf, like Google’s run-in with China, may be more about dissidents than terrorists. …

Online: http://www.thestar.com