This kind of thing is a huge threat to freedom of thought. In the bad old days of the cold war, there were things like World Service and VOA on short wave to provide alternatives to State Propaganda. Could satellites and other technologies not be used to bypass this kind of censorship?

Great eh?

Iran was about the only large ME nation making slow moves toward democracy, complying with the agreement made on nuclear enrichment, but hated by SA and Israel.

It's amazing how counterproductive sanctions can be, exacerbate economic hardship on the poor who'll eventually rebel, but assuring hard authoritarian rule to quell the masses, strengthening anti US/Western sentiment, reversing progress on arms reduction, and destroying any hope for progress in the foreseeable future.