October 20, 2006
The Censorship of Cuba
In Cuba, a nation that boasts one of the highest education levels in the world, less than 2% of the country’s population is logging on to the Internet.
In a report by Reporters Without Borders we find out how the authorities have censored the Cuban citizenship and their access to the Web.
The Cuban authorities attribute the lack of IT advancement to limited bandwidth availability and a poor US trade relationship—according to the powers that be, this prevents them from getting development equipment. Additionally, they must link up though expensive satellite networks instead of using underwater fiber optics.
The national connection that most Cuban’s use has government controlled email, but not full access to the Internet. It costs 4 euros ($5.03) an hour, about a third of the average monthly wage.
To ensure that the Internet is not used in a “counter-revolutionary” manner the government has taken several preventative measures. First, there are no private Internet connections. Although a password can be obtained on the blackmarket, if a citizen gets caught on an illegal connection they can face 5 years in prison. Thus, citizens must use public access points where their Web browsing in monitored for subversive keywords.
Journalists can face up to 20 years in prison for posting “counter revolutionary” articles for foreign websites. With such extreme penalties at hand few risk the consequences.
Posted by Buzz Webster at October 20, 2006 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)