Section 14

Cuba, one of the least connected countries in the world, where less than 2% of people have access to the Internet, on Monday blamed the United States embargo for its restrictive laws.

[Cuban Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes] defended Cuba’s “rational and efficient” use of the Internet, which puts computers in schools and government computer clubs while prohibiting home connections for most citizens and blocking many sites with anti-government material.

Valdes, clearly in two minds about the Internet, described it as “one of the tools for global extermination” but then said it was necessary to “advance down the path of development”.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) countered:

It would anyway have been astonishing if a country that has no independent radio or TV station or newspaper did allow unrestricted access to the Internet. We await the creation of a better Internet connection via Venezuela, as the minister announced, and we will then see if the government finally allows its citizens access to an uncensored Internet.

In its October report on the Internet in Cuba, RSF noted that

[The U.S. embargo] may indeed explain the slowness of the Cuban Internet and the endless lines outside Internet cafes. But in no way does it justify the system of control and surveillance that has been put in place by the authorities. In a country where the media are under the government’s thumb, preventing independent reports and information from circulating online has naturally become a priority.

The regime also ensures that there is no Internet access for its political opponents and independent journalists, for whom reaching news media abroad is an ordeal. The government also counts on self-censorship. In Cuba, you can get a 20-year prison sentence for writing a few “counter-revolutionary” articles for foreign websites, and a five-year one just for connecting with the Internet in an illegal manner. Few people dare to defy the state censorship and take such a risk.

Given that it’s the excuse that’s used for everything that’s wrong with Cuba, I would love to see the U.S. lift the embargo and accelerate the Cuban dictatorship’s collision with the open world.

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 9:19 am and is filed under Dictatorship, Internet, Censorship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.