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Freedom of speech by country Internet censorship and surveillance by country
v t e

Censorship in Cuba has been reported on extensively, and resulted in European Union sanctions as well as statements of protest from groups, governments, and noted individuals.

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation financed by Miami-based Cuban opposition group, Center for a Free Cuba, ranked Cuba near the bottom of their Press Freedom Index in 2008. RWB states that Cuba is "the second biggest prison in the world for journalists" after the People's Republic of China.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) states that Cuba is the second biggest prison in the world for journalists after the People's Republic of China. The Committe 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 ranked near the bottom of the Press Freedom Index in 2008. Cuba was named one of the ten most censored countries in the world by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Cuban authorities have called Internet "the great disease of 21st century". While special permits to use Internet are available to selected Cubans, Internet remains restricted for the vast majority of Cubans.

Books, newspapers, radio channels, television channels, movies and music are censored.

Media is operated under the supervision of the Communist Party's Department of Revolutionary Orientation, which "develops and coordinates propaganda strategies".

Laws

Human Rights Watch notes:

Cuba's provision regarding contempt for authority (desacato) penalizes anyone who "threatens, libels or slanders, defames, affronts (injuria) or in any other way insults (ultraje) or offends, with the spoken word or in writing, the dignity or decorum of an authority, public functionary, or his agents or auxiliaries." Such actions are punishable by three months to one year in prison, plus a fine. If the person demonstrates contempt for "the President of the Council of the State, the President of the National Assembly of Popular Power, the members of the Council of the State or the Council of Ministers, or the Deputies of the National Assembly of the Popular Power, the sanction is deprivation of liberty for one to three years."

The Criminal Code mandates a three-month to one-year sentence for anyone who "publicly defames, denigrates, or scorns the Republic's institutions, the political, mass, or social organizations of the country, or the heroes or martyrs of the nation." This sweeping provision potentially outlaws mere expressions of dissatisfaction or disagreement with government policies or practices, clearly violating free expression. The protection from insult of lifeless entities, and state-controlled institutions and organizations in particular, appears designed solely to preserve the current government's power.

Like defamation of public institutions and symbols, clandestine printing appears as a crime against public order in the Criminal Code. Preserving public order does not sufficiently justify the law's extremely broad prohibition on free expression and a free press. Anyone who "produces, disseminates, or directs the circulation of publications without indicating the printer or the place where it was printed, or without following the established rules for the identification of the author or origin, or reproduces, stores, or transports" such publications, risks from three months to one year in prison.

Regarding institutions, the Human Rights Watch report notes:

The Interior Ministry has principal responsibility for monitoring the Cuban population for signs of dissent. Reportedly, the ministry employs two central offices for this purpose: the General Directorate of Counter-Intelligence and the General Directorate of Internal Order. The former supervises the activities of the Department of State Security, also known as the Political Police, reportedly dividing its counter-intelligence operations into specialized units. One of the units—known as "Department Four"—reportedly focuses on the "ideological sector," which includes religious groups, writers, and artists.

In 1991 two new government-sponsored mechanisms for internal surveillance and control emerged. Communist Party leaders organized the Singular Systems of Vigilance and Protection (Sistema Unico de Vigilancia y Protección, SUVP). The SUVP membership reaches across several state institutions, including the party, the police, the CDRs, the state-controlled labor union, student groups, and members of mass organizations.172 The government reportedly has called on the SUVPs to carry out surveillance and to intimidate opposition activists. The government also organized groups of civilian sympathizers into Rapid Action Brigades (Brigadas de Acción Rapida, also referred to as Rapid Response Brigades, or Brigadas de Respuesta Rápida) to observe and control dissidents.

The Cuban migration authorities and housing officials also have emerged as important actors in government efforts to intimidate independent activists by threatening them with forced exile or the loss of their homes, or imposing fines on them. Cuba also monitors political fielty at the workplace and in schools. The government maintains academic and labor files (expedientes escolares y laborales) for each citizen, in which officials record actions or statements that may bear on the person's loyalty to the regime. Before advancing to a new school or position, the individual's record must first be deemed acceptable.

Internet

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 that allow Cubans to use their computers are harassed.

It is forbidden to buy any computer equipment without express permission from the authorities. Although difficult, it is possible to assemble a computer from parts bought on the black market but the prices are prohibitive. The state owns nearly all computers on the island. As a result, Cuba has one of the world’s lowest levels of computer ownership – 3.3 per 100 inhabitants, the same rate as Togo (source: the International Telecommunication Union, 2005)

— "Going online in Cuba: Internet under surveillance" by Reporters Without Borders

The Cuban ambassor Miguel Ramirez has described Amnesty International as biased and argued that Cuba has right to "regulate access to Internet and avoid hackers, stealing passwords, access to pornographic, satanic cults, terrorist or other negative sites".

In accordance with its blockade policy, the US has blocked Cuba's access to a fiber-optic cable that would permit wider, faster, and broader access to the Internet by means underwater internet cables, one of which they say passes within only 20 miles of Havana. Cuban authorities say this forces Cuba to connect to the Internet via satellite, which is slower and more expensive. Because of the limited bandwidth, authorities claim to give preference to areas where it is used on a mass collective basis, such as in work places, schools, and research centers, where many people have access to the same computer. Authorities claim that 1,400,000 or about twelve percent of the population have access to Internet, and there were 630,000 computers available on the island in 2008, a 23% increase over 2007. The Cuban authorities have called the Internet "the great disease of the 21st century".

Guillermo Fariñas did a seven-month hunger strike to protest against the Internet censorship in Cuba. He ended it in Autumn 2006, with severe health problems although still conscious. Guillermo Fariñas has stated that he is ready to die in the struggle against censorship.

Media and culture

Cubans cannot watch or listen to independent, private, or foreign broadcasts.

Cubans cannot read books, magazines or newspapers, unless approved/published by the government. Cubans can not receive publications from abroad or from visitors.

In August 2006, the Cuban government announced a warning to owners of illegal television satellite dishes, citing as a concern that the United States could use the dishes to transmit programming with "destabilizing, subversive content."

Copies of publications such as United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been ordered to be burned or otherwise destroyed.

After the Communist regime took power, Che Guevara wanted to ban jazz and rock&roll, which he saw as "imperialist music". Miniskirts and artists such as Beatles were banned as examples of "decadent capitalist culture".

Before the Communist regime, Havana boasted 135 cinemas — more than New York City or Paris. Today only several remain open, although the city’s population has doubled. The Communist regime established a control of movie industry and movies became censored by the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográfico.

In 2002, “Following the Hip Hop Festival held in Havana in August, the Casa de Cultura in Alamar received an order from the Ministry of Culture to review the lyrics of rap songs before the start of any concert.” Cuban rappers responded by altering their music/lyric styles. “Underground’s beat slowed down its tempo and rappers started changing up their lyrics. The strident notes coming from the barrios and caseríos that scared the State so much when they first came out started softening themselves to take advantage of the promotional opportunities offered by those same people who initiated the hunting spree.” For more information here is an interview with Dr. Mario Masvidal who is a former Cuban radio personality where he gives his thoughts on music censorship in Cuba.

Mobile phones

Mobile phones have been heavily regulated and restricted to ruling elite. In 2008, an article noted that Cuba has the world's second smallest percentage of mobile phone ownership according to the United Nations - only Papua New Guinea has less mobile phones per person.

Cooperation with China

Reporters Without Borders suspects that Cuba obtains its surveillance technology from China, which has supplied other regimes such as Zimbabwe and Belarus.

Chronology of events

• 1963 - Cuba begins to jam foreign radio broadcasts
• 2006 - Cuba jams Radio Republica, a clandestine broadcast to Cuba on 7205 kHz

International attention

Sanctions, imposed by the European Union in 2003 as a response to a crackdown against dissidents (Black Spring), were not renewed in 2006, in spite of a finding by the EU council that "the state of human rights had deteriorated" since sanctions were initially imposed. 20 reporters imprisoned in 2003 are still in jail, including Guillermo Fariñas.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and its Committee of Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression expressed their deep concern about the continuing violations of the basic human right to freedom of access to information and freedom of expression in Cuba.

The Office for Cuban Affairs of the United States government issued a statement praising the Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations for their efforts to bring attention to the “unjust jailing of journalists” in Cuba.

Censorship of the Univeral Declaration of Human Rights

The regime has ordered copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be burned or otherwise destroyed. In a instance, an entire shipment of books - which included children's literature and medical textbooks - was destroyed because State Security found that it contained 8,000 copies of the declaration.

Human Rights Watch notes a 1994 case:

A sentencing document obtained by Human Rights Watch justifies the October 17, 1994, conviction of five "counterrevolutionaries" to ten years each for rebellion. In the sentencing document, the Cuban judges characterized the actions of the opposition group members as nonviolent. However, the judges found that they had prepared and distributed "counterrevolutionary propaganda" consisting of flyers marked "Wake up, Cuban!" and "exhorted changes in the country's social, political, and economic systems, supported by three declarations from the Universal Charter of Human Rights that the said were being violated in Cuba." Other elements of offending propaganda included pieces of notebook paper printed with the messages "Down with Fidel" and "Annul your ballot like this," and pamphlets asking "Have you thought about what it means to vote in the elections?" and answering "It means renouncing your rights: allowing this dictatorship to lastlonger." The court characterized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and denunciations of Cuban human rights violations as counterrevolutionary propaganda.

References

1. Green, Eric 2005 Cuban Women's Group Awarded European Parliament's Sakharov Prize Prize also awarded to press freedom group, Nigerian human-rights lawyer. U.S. State Department. http://usinfo.state.gov/wh/Archive/2005/Oct/27-257396.html “In an October 26 statement, the European Parliament, which awards the prize annually, said the group of Cuban women has been protesting peacefully every Sunday since 2004 against the continued detention of their husbands and sons, who are political dissidents in Cuba. The women wear white as a symbol of peace and the innocence of those imprisoned.”
2. Reporters Without Borders Unmasked, Counterpunch, 17 May 2005
3. "Press Freedom Index 2008" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 2008.
4. "Updated information on imprisoned Cuban journalists". Reporters Without Borders.
5. "CPJ's 2008 prison census: Online and in jail". Committee to Protect Journalists.
6. "Press Freedom Index 2008" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 2008.
7. ^ "10 most censored countries". The Committee to Protect Journalists.
8. ^ "Internet in Cuba". Reporters Without Borders.
9. ^ "III. IMPEDIMENTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBAN LAW". Human Rights Watch. 1999.
10. "VIII. ROUTINE REPRESSION". Human Rights Watch. 1999.
11. ^ "Going online in Cuba: Internet under surveillance" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 2006.
12. "Cuba delays crackdown against illegal access to Internet".
13. CUBA CRITICIZED FOR LIMITING CITIZEN'S INTERNET ACCESS, BUT US PREVENTS HOOKUP.
14. "Cuba to keep internet limits". March 1, 2009.}}
15. "Cuba to keep internet limits". March 1, 2009.}}
16. ^ "Guillermo Fariñas ends seven-month-old hunger strike for Internet access". Reporters Without Borders. 1 September 2006.
17. ^ "Cuba facts issue 42".
18. Thompson, Ginger (2006-08-10). "Cuba: Warning On TV Dishes". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-12-07. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
19. "Books Ordered Burned or Destroyed by Cuban Courts in April 2003".
20. "Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara".
21. "Cuban writers angered by resurfacing of censor".
22. "The Cuban revolution at 50: Heroic myth and prosaic failure". The Economist. December 30th 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
23. Theodore Dalrymple. "Cuba: A Cemetery of Hopes".
24. William Luis. Culture and customs of Cuba.
25. Censorship against young poets and rap artists Jorge Alberto Aguiar Diaz, Cuba News. 12/13/2002
26. Joseph, Welmo Romero. 2008. "From Hip-hop to Reggaeton: Is There Only a Step?" In Reading Reggaeton (forthcoming, Duke University Press).
27. Michael C. Moynihan (February 22, 2008). "Still Stuck on Castro - How the press handled a tyrant's farewell".
28. http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl4.htm
29. "Dismay at the European Union's decision not to re-impose Cuba sanctions". Reporters Without Borders. 2006-06-04. Retrieved 2006-12-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
30. Access to Information and Intellectual Freedom in Cuba American Library Association
31. Green, Eric (2006-11-06). "U.S. Lauds Press Freedom Advocates' Criticism of Cuba". News From Washington. United States Government. Retrieved 2006-12-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
32. "Books Ordered Burned or Destroyed by Cuban Courts in April 2003".
33. Ray Bradbury condemns Cuban book burning: 'Fahrenheit 451' author takes stance while U.S. librarians ignore counterparts.
34. ^ ""Library books burned, buried, dumped": Mystery solved?". March 9, 2000.

External links

• Imprisoned journalists
• Reporters Without Borders

• Censorship in Cuba
• Communications in Cuba
• Human rights in Cuba
• Politics of Cuba