Latin America & the Caribbean

Cuba

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}
 

Despite a slight loosening of restrictions on the sale of computers in 2008 and the important growth of mobile-phone infrastructure in 2009 and 2010, Cuba remains one of the world’s most repressive environments for the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs). There is almost no access to internet applications other than e-mail, and surveillance is extensive, including special software designed to monitor and control many of the island’s public internet-access points.Nevertheless, a growing community of bloggers has consolidated their work, creatively using online and offline means to express opinions and spread information about conditions in the country.
Read more on Freedom House's site...

Reporters Without Borders Description:

Cuba is the only country on the American continent that does not tolerate an independent press outside the tight control of the state. The official media (one television station, one radio, two daily newspapers - Granma and Juventud Rebelde - and their local offices) have the job of relaying official propaganda. Only a few Catholic magazines are permitted. Dissident journalists therefore all work secretly and are forced to publish with external help, in particular through websites run by the Cuban diaspora in Miami, what they cannot publish to their fellow citizens on the island. Cuba has been the world’s third biggest prison for journalists, after China and Eritrea, since the “black spring” crackdown on dissidents in March 2003. Nineteen of the 27 journalists arrested at the time remain behind bars, including the Reporters Without Borders’ correspondent, Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso.

Read more on RSF’s site…

After years of intensive advocacy and international diplomacy, 17 independent journalists swept up in the government's 2003 Black Spring crackdown were finally freed from an unjust and inhumane imprisonment. The Roman Catholic Church, with participation from Spanish officials, struck an agreement in July with the government of President Raúl Castro Ruz that called for the release of all 52 prisoners still being held seven years after the massive crackdown on political dissent and independent journalism. The deal as outlined by the church called for the release of all Black Spring detainees within four months, but three journalists and several other dissidents, apparently balking at Cuba's insistence that they leave the country in exchange for their freedom, remained in jail in late year. A fourth journalist, arrested in 2009, also remained in prison.

Read more on CPJ’s site...

Visit IFEX’s Site for Recent News on Media in this Country