Cuban bloggers open space for freedom of expression

A vibrant independent bloggers culture is emerging in Cuba, according to a report by the Center to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published on Thursday in New York.

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"The bloggers, mostly youngsters from different professions, have opened a new space for freedom of expression in Cuba," the study of Carlos Lauria and Maria Salazar, specialists to CPJ's Americas.

According to the authors, Cuban blogs are "a ray of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas within the closed Cuban system."

"Despite major legal and technical obstacles, a growing number of Cuban bloggers has prevailed over the strong restrictions on Internet use imposed by the government, making the island to spread news and views online," the document said.

CPJ estimated 25 independent newspaper blogs are being fed by Cubans, as well as 75 more blogs with personal or family interests and 200 blogs of journalists with official approval.

Unlike the independent press in the nineties - says CPJ - composed mostly of opposition activists, bloggers have marked their differences with respect to the government and dissent.

"Their blogs have been harsh critics of the Cuban government or rather have been spaces for sharing information and viewpoints," CPJ said the writer Manuel Vazquez Portal, jailed in 2003 along with 74 other dissidents, before being released one years and sent into exile.

Intentionally or not, bloggers have been astute in not openly challenge the Cuban government, said Daniel Erikson, an analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank based in Washington.

"Their blogs have been harsh critics of the Cuban government or rather have been spaces for sharing information and viewpoints," said Erikson, quoted in the paper.

Cuban bloggers are mostly young people between 20 and 30, students, teachers, lawyers, artists or musicians, often written by name and are located mainly in Havana, where it is easier access to computers and Internet inside the island.

According to authorities, nearly 13% of the Cuban population has Internet access, independent journalists insist though that number is inflated. Cuba has the lowest rate of internet access in the Americas.

In practice, individual access to the Web is largely restricted to foreigners, intellectuals with government ties, senior officials, some doctors in hospitals, academics at universities and companies that are owned by the government, reports CPJ.

"The emergence of independent bloggers is also evidence of a generational shift, a sign that even a country as isolated as Cuba is moving slowly into the 21st century," concludes the report.

In its recommendations, CPJ calls on the Cuban government to "end the harassment" of bloggers and journalists, remove barriers to individual access to internet and free the journalists currently imprisoned in Cuba.