Watch your mouth!

You don’t have to carry a rifle or an explosives belt to be a threat to the government these days. Throughout the Middle East, it is enough to merely speak your mind.

In recent weeks, Morocco has rounded up left-wingers and rights activists for ostensibly “insulting sacred doctrines.”

Tunisia, meanwhile, has locked up an Islamist journalist; harassed the leader of a journalist’s union; and shut down a magazine for publishing common Tunisians’ jokes about religion, sex and politics.

In Syria, where arresting “dissidents” is something of a sport for the government, an anti-Baathist journalist was recently sentenced to three years in jail.

Iran’s treatment of former Revolutionary Guard turned anti-government snitch and pro-democracy activist Akbar Ganji is but the most prominent example of a widespread practice.

Ditto for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Muslim countries routinely occupy some of the lowest spots in the Reporters Without Frontiers annual rankings of press freedom, or that protests against censorship through intimidation and violence have come from such groups as the Arab Press Network and Arab Press Freedom Watch.

Interestingly, the press freedom index closely resembles the economic freedom index.

In fact, both closely resemble the broad series of indicators in the UN's Human Development Report. More freedom, apparently, really does mean a better life.