In the United States, bloggers are protected by the First Amendment. NetworkWorld reports:

The Federal Election Commission, by a vote of 6-0, declared Monday that the First Amendment does indeed apply to bloggers who write about politics.

But it is quite a different story for Iranian bloggers. . . Wired News gives an eye-openig report on Iran’s blogging community, Weblogistan:

“On his last visit to Iran, Canadian-based blogger Hossein Derakhshan was detained and interrogated, then forced to sign a letter of apology for his blog writings before being allowed to leave the country. Compared to others, Derakhshan is lucky…”