Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton picked the right battle this week, calling for an end to Internet censorship and naming governments that suppress the free flow of information — including China, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia and Uzbekistan.

Her speech, at the Newseum in Washington, had pointed echoes of the cold war, including a warning that “a new information curtain is descending across much of the world.” Anyone who finds that overheated should remember how hard Iran’s government worked to shut down the Web during last summer’s bloody, pro-democracy protests — and the power of the images and words that managed to get through.