Cuban government remains firm in blocking free speech
Internet bloggers feeling crackdown
Ray Sanchez, MCT
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: Perspectives
"Who is the last in line for a toaster?" was the title of a recent blog on the lifting of a ban on sales of computers, DVD players and other appliances. Toasters will not be sold until 2010. The blog received 1.2 million hits in February.
"We have to wait and see what happens," Sanchez said, vowing to continue posting her critical blogs.
Cuba's communications minister, Ramiro Valdes, a veteran of the 1959 revolution, told an international conference last year that the Internet was "the wild colt of new technologies," adding that it "can and must be controlled."
Only government employees, academics and researchers may have personal Internet accounts provided by government servers.
Ordinary Cubans are allowed access to e-mail at local post offices and other locations. They can view government approved Web sites through an official Cuban "Intranet" that blocks pornography and anti-Castro Web sites.
Cuba defends its restrictions as necessary to block what it calls U.S. efforts to undermine the government. It blames limited access on the U.S. economic embargo, which prevents the country from linking to underwater fiber-optic cables 12 miles offshore. Instead, Cuba must rely on expensive satellite uplinks.
While computers are not readily available on the island, Cubans who travel abroad are allowed to acquire them. Secondhand models are available on the black market.
"We have to wait and see what happens," Sanchez said, vowing to continue posting her critical blogs.
Cuba's communications minister, Ramiro Valdes, a veteran of the 1959 revolution, told an international conference last year that the Internet was "the wild colt of new technologies," adding that it "can and must be controlled."
Only government employees, academics and researchers may have personal Internet accounts provided by government servers.
Ordinary Cubans are allowed access to e-mail at local post offices and other locations. They can view government approved Web sites through an official Cuban "Intranet" that blocks pornography and anti-Castro Web sites.
Cuba defends its restrictions as necessary to block what it calls U.S. efforts to undermine the government. It blames limited access on the U.S. economic embargo, which prevents the country from linking to underwater fiber-optic cables 12 miles offshore. Instead, Cuba must rely on expensive satellite uplinks.
While computers are not readily available on the island, Cubans who travel abroad are allowed to acquire them. Secondhand models are available on the black market.
Article last update: 4/1/08 at 7:31 PM CST
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