Is It Time To Defect To The West Yet?

Consider the following [edited] news article. We've changed the language to disguise from the reader the identity of the country where this is happening. See if you can guess. (Answer will follow the excerpt.)

CAPITOL CITY - The Ministry of Foreign Policy has been using political litmus tests to screen Imperial citizens before they can be sent overseas to represent the Empire of Foo, weeding out critics of the Brutus administration's Eurasia policy, according to ministry officials and internal e-mails.

[...]
Current and former officials involved with the overseas speakers program of the Ministry of Foreign Policy said potential candidates were vetted -- via Internet searches, for example -- for any comments or writings that criticized Imperial policy.

"There's definitely a political litmus test. You don't have to be a Party Member, but you better not have said anything against them," one official said.

The official said he knew of no blacklist of banned scholars. "But there certainly is a 'white list' of those who can go," he added.

He and others agreed to discuss the Ministry of Foreign Policy practices only on condition of anonymity, saying they feared retaliation for exposing them.
[...]

Here is the original article in the Duluth News Tribune.