Free expression must go with better communications, says Reporters
Without Borders as blogs prove hard to access
Reporters Without Borders today expressed concern that Cuban Internet
users are struggling to get access to blogs on the desdecuba.com
platform that hosts, among others, one of the most popular in the
country, Generación Y, a blog run by Yoani Sánchez.
The platform (www.desdecuba.com) has been inaccessible from public
connection points in cybercafés and hotels since 2O March. The few
private connections, used for professional reasons or in secret, take at
least 20 minutes to download the home page. Editing and moderating posts
has become impossible.
"It is hard to believe that after ten days desdecuba.com is simply
having technical problems, even if there is a real problem getting an
Internet connection from Cuba. This situation is in contradiction to
recent steps taken by the authorities to ease access for Cubans to
communications, especially the Internet," the worldwide press freedom
organisation said.
"Since you cannot have one without the other, the promise of greater
openness given by Raúl Castro must include greater freedom of expression."
Desdecuba.com hosts an online review, Consenso, and six blogs, including
Generación Y (http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony), created in April
2007 by Yoani Sánchez and regularly visited by large numbers of Cubans.
More than one million Internet users visited the young blogger's page in
February 2008.
Elsewhere, there have been difficulties accessing
http://www.cu.clasificados.com and http://www.revolico.net, both posting
small advertisements. The public company ETECSA, Cuba's sole access
provider, has not provided any explanation.
The problems getting access to website pages comes at the end of a month
marked by several announced decisions to ease private acquisition of
some consumer goods. And on 28 March the government said it was allowing
Cubans to buy mobile phones and that the entire population would have
access to a mobile phone service. Three days earlier, it legalised the
sale of computers, televisions and tape-recorders and authorised the
import of DVDs. Moreover, from today, Cubans are allowed to go into
hotels, which were previously reserved for foreigners, allowing them
access to the international Internet network.
These steps are part of a policy of greater economic openness promoted
by Raúl Castro, who officially took over as head of state from his
brother, Fidel, on 24 February this year, after 20 months of interim
power. He promised Cubans that he would put an end to "excessive bans
and regulations".
The Internet in Cuba is highly controlled. There is a "national" network
which gives users an email address and allows them to send emails abroad
but not to surf the net. The "international" network, which costs three
times as much, gives access to foreign news websites like the BBC, Le
Monde, and Nuevo Herald (Miami-based Spanish-language daily). But if you
type in "google.fr", for example, you are redirected to the pages of the
official Cuban newspaper Granma or the news agency Prensa Latina. Cuba
figures on Reporters Without Borders' list of "Internet Enemies" , which
was released on 12 March 2008.
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