Internet Censorship – Cuba

Cuba is on OpenNet Initiative’s watchlist and on RSF’s internet enemy list. According to Reporters Without Borders, Cuba has the lowest ratio of computers per inhabitant in Latin America, and the lowest internet access ratio of all the Western hemisphere. Citizens have to use government controlled “access points”, where their activity is monitored through IP blocking, keyword filtering and browsing history checking.

The government cites its citizens’ access to internet services are limited due to high costs and the American embargo, but there are reports concerning the will of the government to control access to uncensored information both from and to the outer world. The Cuban government continues to imprison independent journalists for contributing reports through the Internet to web sites outside of Cuba.

Salim Lamrani, a professor at Paris Descartes University, has accused Reporters Without Borders with making unsupported and contradictory statements regarding Internet connectivity in Cuba. However, despite precise figures are hard to know because of the secretive nature of the regime and its telecommunication policies, testimonials from independent bloggers, activists and international watchers agree by saying the difficulties for non-government people to access the web as well as the harsh punishments against transgressors are the norm. The Committee to Protect Journalists has pointed Cuba as one of the ten most censored countries around the world.

Cuba was the second biggest prison in the world for journalists in 2008, second only to the People’s Republic of China, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international NGO. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Cuba as the world’s fourth worst place for bloggers, stating that “only government officials and people with links to the Communist Party have Web access” and “only pro-government bloggers can post their material on domestic sites that can be easily accessed”.

Cuba was ranked near the bottom of the Press Freedom Index in 2008. Inter American Press Association reports that “repression against independent journalists, mistreatment of jailed reporters and very strict government surveillance limiting the people’s access to alternative sources of information are continuing”. Cuba was named one of the ten most censored countries in the world by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Books, newspapers, radio channels, television channels, movies and music are heavily censored. Clandestine printing is also highly restricted. In fact, the Cuban authorities have called Internet “the great disease of The 21st Century”.  While special permits to use Internet are available to selected Cubans, use of the Internet remains restricted for the vast majority of Cubans.  Mobile phones are quite rare, with most citizens not having been allowed to use them until quite recently.  Foreign journalists who can work in the country are selected by the government.

Media is operated under the supervision of the Communist Party’s Department of Revolutionary Orientation, which “develops and coordinates propaganda strategies”. A special permit is required for using the Internet in Cuba. Internet access is controlled and e-mail is monitored.

Two kinds of online connections are offered in Cuban Internet cafes: a “national” one that is restricted to use an e-mail service operated by the government, and an “international” one that give access to the entire Internet. The population is restricted to the first one, which costs 1.20 euros an hour. Most can’t even afford the 4 euros an hour needed to browse the Internet, as this is approximately a third of the average monthly wage.

To use a computer, Cubans have to give their name and address – and if they write dissent keywords, a popup appears that the document has been blocked for “state security” reasons, and the word processor or browser is automatically closed. Foreign visitors who allow Cubans to use their computers are harassed and persecuted.