They number just a few dozen and hardly anyone can read them - but
Cuba's government has already decided it does not like blogs
They are new, number just a few dozen and hardly anyone can read them –
but Cuba's government has already decided it does not like independent
blogs.
The island's blogosphere is tiny but represents a threat to authorities
who have spent half a century censoring and controlling information.
About a third of the island's estimated 300 blogs operate without
official approval, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists. They range from outspoken political forums such as Voz Tras
Las Rejas (Voice From Behind Bars), which includes posts dictated by
Pablo Pacheco, who has been jailed since 2003, to wry, whimsical
observations about life under tropical communism.
Fewer than 2% of people in Cuba are estimated to have internet access,
with cybercafes limited largely to serving foreign tourists. Cuba
appears to block fewer sites than China and relies more on prohibitive
cost to curb bloggers' access and impact.
Bloggers publish their work through back channels‚ saving documents on
memory sticks and uploading entries through illegal connections,
according to a Human Rights Watch report published today.
"Because an hour of internet use costs one-third of Cubans' monthly
wages and is available exclusively in a few government-run centres, only
a tiny fraction of Cubans have the chance to read such blogs‚ including,
ironically, the bloggers themselves."
Even so, bloggers have used tweets, texts and posts to co-ordinate
several recent protests. "It's a matter of trying to grease the
machinery for online protests," said Yoani Sánchez, the highest profile
blogger. The 34-year-old, who has won a large following off the island,
was briefly abducted and beaten last week by suspected state security
agents.
With her husband and fellow blogger Reynaldo Escobar, she trained
would-be bloggers in the first Bloggers Academy of Cuba session in her
Havana flat.
The authorities have made cautious forays into online interaction. The
state newspaper Juventud Rebelde now has a comments section and some
computer students are reportedly paid to write pro-Castro comments on
dissident blogs.
The government blames internet restraints on a US embargo, which blocks
an underwater cable from the United States. Although the US recently
dropped the cable ban, Havana has said it will build a cable from Venezuela.
Charting the Cuban blogosphere | World news | The Guardian (18 November
2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/18/cuba-blogs-blogosphere
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