Bloggers are increasingly being targeted for arrest by governments that are scared of their growing influence on the population.

A report by the University of Washington found a steady increase in the number of bloggers arrested since 2003.

However, the Blogger Arrests report points to a significant jump in detention last year. Ten bloggers were arrested in 2006, but this rose to 36 in 2007.

"After surveying our data, we predict that the number of blogger arrests will rise in 2008," the report states.

"The popularity of online blogs continues to grow and inspire more media coverage of arrest incidents. Countries are enforcing greater internet regulation, which will only increase with the elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US this year."

States in the Middle East and Far East were most likely to jail bloggers, with Egypt, China and Iran making up the majority of cases.

The report authors warned that this was based only on reported arrests, and that the actual figure may be much higher.

Bloggers are more likely to be targeted during politically sensitive periods, such as elections and times of civil unrest.

"Time spent in jail varied from blogger to blogger, with the least being a few hours and the greatest eight years," the report stated.

"We recorded punishment by adding all time in jail in months and finding the average amount of time spent in jail.

"During the five years we researched, bloggers spent a total of 940 months in jail, while the average prison time for a blogger was 15 months."